Hello Everyone,
For your first Writing Journal assignment, please read the following article: “Truth: Can You Handle It?" by Monica Hesse, washingtonpost.com April 27, 2008. p. M01
- Go to the website for washingtonpost.com
- Then choose " Web: Results by Google" (next to the SEARCH: data field).
- Next, Type the article’s title in the SEARCH: data field, and perform your search.
You’re welcome to respond to the article however you wish. I do encourage you, though, to consider the following:
Consider Monica Hesse’s points. How does your own experience confirm or disprove what she says about conducting research in the current information age?
Considering the author’s explanation of “wikiality,” what (if anything) can students do to avoid that trap? What are some possible consequences of this phenomenon?
The author mentions the notion of discerning fact from opinion. How do you yourself tell the difference (in your sources for news, for instance)?
What do you think about the amount of time the one student, Hillary Swain, is willing to spend “to track down an answer before giving up”? How much time do you think is reasonable?
What can be done to encourage students to use research as an opportunity to educate themselves and deepen their knowledge rather than a chance to reinforce their own beliefs?
Please include the following information as a heading on your work:
Your name
Eng1050 – 20
Writing Journal Assignment #1
Please post your Writing Journal response to this article (200 - 250 words) by Thursday, September 17, 2009.
Have a good day.
Mr. Dierkes
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Personally, I found this article interesting and easy to relate to my own experiences. In high school, almost every teacher I had would not accept Wikipedia as a legitimate source for research projects/papers. I agree with Hesse’s opinion that in today’s world there is simply too much information available to students and not enough knowledge about the information. It is possible for students to avoid what Hesse describes as “wikiality”. In my AP History class, our teacher encouraged us to use sources, such as Wikipedia, as a starting point to stimulate ideas and provide information for further research. It is difficult as a student to discern fact from opinion, especially when the topic is not one that is familiar. Research is one way to learn more about a specific topic and enables you to make a clear distinction between fact and opinion. I think that students are more inclined to conduct research when the topic of research is of interest to them. If they can personally relate to the topic, they feel as though they have “something to gain” from the experience. In addition to personal connection, I feel that students often are in a hurry to get research and schoolwork “over with”. They do the work, hand it in, get a grade, and that’s the end of it. Many students do just enough work to get by; in fact, I have had friends that developed a “system” of how little work they had to do in order to maintain a certain average in a particular class. This “get it done” philosophy is a product of today’s society, just as “wikiality” is also a result of society. The internet offers instantaneous information; therefore, many students will pick the first hit that shows up on the page. Unfortunately, I do not think there is any way to intervene in the “wikiality” that has been created; students simply need to be more careful and conscientious with their research.
ReplyDeleteI can relate quite easily to the use of wikipedia. I have no qualms in using wikipedia as a quick source of information or a statistic. As long as it is a legitimate subject that i am looking for on the site i have never run into any problems with questionable information. In a world that is increasingly seeking instant gratification and quick, accurate answers wikipedia has emerged as the perfect response to this demand. To be honest i cant remember the last time i googled something for information and the corresponding wikipedia article was not the first hit on google. Another reason for the popularity of wikipedia and the emergence of wikiality is that students tend to care less about the subjects that they are researching. I, for example, care less than i should about many of my research projects and as a result its more important for me to get information than to get the most accurate information about a topic. Unless my grade is going to be endangered, which it may be by plagiarism in some cases, i am often more tempted by the path that will get me answers fastest.
ReplyDeleteAlex Sarnese
ReplyDeleteEng1050 – 20
Writing Journal Assignment #1
Monica Hesse brings up many good points that I, through my past experiences, can personally confirm. Information in this day and age is far more easily accessible than it was in the past because of the advancements in technology, notably the internet. The internet is always the first place I go when I begin my research. I think the main focus in teaching kids how to research should shift from the traditional researching skills to more emphasis on determining how and when to use certain online sources. Through my experiences, I have learned that websites such as Wikipedia are good jumping off points, but these sites should never be cited because there is a chance there could be an inaccuracy within them.
I thought the author brought up a good point about the difference between information and knowledge. This topic has come up a lot in some of my other classes. I agree with Hesse that people now have been relying way too much on information and are not processing that information and turning it into knowledge. Instead, they are just easily accessing information and “spitting it back out” in papers or research. This goes along with Hesse’s point about not thinking about their research anymore, and rather just finding the first bit of information they can. I still think sources like this are great for finding out relatively unimportant information, but overall people need to start learning how to weed out which sources can be used for formal research.