Abstract

1. What are the guidelines for evaluating and interpreting information (This checklist can be found on page 164 in our text. Using those guidelines locate a source utilized in your career field and evaluate the source based upon the checklist.

2. From media, personal experience, or the internet, identify an example of each of the following sources of distortion or of interpretive error. For each example list the name of the article, names of the author(s), and the reason you believe it can be identified as a distortion or interpretive error:

i. A study with questionable sponsorship or motives

ii. Reliance on insufficient evidence

iii. Unbalanced presentation

iv. Deceptive framing of facts

v. Overestimating the level of certainty

vi. Biased interpretation

vii. Rationalizing

viii. Unexamined assumptions

ix. Hasty generalization

x. Deceptive reporting

3. Find an article about your major field or area of interest and write an informative abstract for the article. Make sure to include a link to the article, or citation information so that I can locate the article itself. 

4. Using the same article as in question three, write a descriptive abstract for that article. 

5. Find a long article (at least 5 pages) and summarize it, following the step-by-step process described in Chapter 9 maintaining accuracy, completeness, conciseness, and nontechnical language. Capture the essence and main points of the original article in no more than one-fourth of the page length. Use your own words, and do not distort the original. Submit a copy of the original (or a link to the article) along with your summary.