Searching and Researching – Module 6

Searching and researching is an important step in writing a report and is often one of the first steps after choosing a topic. Being able to discern if the source and the information provided is useful and what is not is a big part of writing a report. A useful source of information will be able to pass the tests of credibility which are reliability, quality, and utility. Reliability is a good way of holding the person responsible for the article accountable for what was written and can be a good way of sorting out known organizations with habits of credibility issues. Quality is important for sources because if the article is written poorly, the validity of the article may be challenged. The author didn’t bother reviewing their article so maybe they also didn’t bother to fact check as well as they should have and maybe they are also biased picking and choosing facts. The utility is also important because a source needs to have enough detail to prove that the information is good at all. A source that is all over the place or the information is above or below the readers level might need to be skipped.

Searching and researching are two separate things which is important because searching provides all the information in quantity while researching is in quality. Searching is something that for the most part anyone can do because it is so simple. The problem is that it is also so simple to do that people don’t check the answers that they are given when doing a search. Researching is the best option for writing anything of importance, but requires a methodology to do properly. Using multiple sources that pass the credibility test is a good start because the information is most likely true. You end up getting their sources and that you can check as well. To check and make sure it is really true the next step is to compare sources and hopefully turn the information gathered into an accurate report.

2 thoughts on “Searching and Researching – Module 6

  1. I think that this is a great blog post with a lot of good information that students can take from it. It really shows that you know what you are talking about and are proficient in this topic. I definitely learned some new information from reading your post.

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