WRIT_1002 Comp I: Rhetoric and Inquiry - Prof. Wagner: Credible Sources

Critical reading

• Get ready to question everything you read, but with a mind open to learning from trusted sources!

  • Skepticism, but not cynicism (Reading on the dangers of information cynicism)

Critical Reading Toolkit

• Ask questions of the text as you are reading as if you are having a conversation with it - if you are conducting research this will give you a natural segue into what research questions you want to investigate and support with outside evidence (sources) 

• Hunter College - Guidelines for Critical Reading

• Wikihow: Understand a Word Without Using a Dictionary

• The 5 W's and 1 H - "To help me understand details of what I read"

Fact Checking

• Evaluate and investigate the arguments, evidence given to support arguments, opinions, biases, etc. in the sources you encounter

• SIFT Method - Seek verification from multiple, credible sources and trace original sources of evidence

• Stanford History Education Group - How Fact Checkers Evaluate Information Online

Experimenting with emerging technologies to broaden your own understanding can be valuable, time-saving, and can help you to connect the dots in ways that you may not have been able to do so on your own.

Google searches, Wikipedia searches, and more can be very useful for quickly locating background information and selecting helpful keywords that you can search library databases with. Please make sure to first discuss parameters laid out by your professor about what you can and cannot use in your research papers. The following examples contain surprising information and how humans are shaping information technologies, and technologies are shaping human knowledge which may make you think differently about the places you commonly visit (or avoid!) looking for quick background information.

Be aware that your own thoughts and voice are unique and exercising them frequently by critically thinking and reading is an opportunity to flex your creativity, to challenge systemic bias, and to come up with novel ideas. In the long term, not practicing critical thinking, particularly on a larger human scale may have unintended consequences. You can read dozens of news articles every day about the advancements of algorithms and generative AI and the implications this will have on just about every aspect of human society.

Wikipedia

• Wikipedia: Misconceptions & Benefits (Butler, Introduction to College Research)

• Wikipedia:List of policies and guidelines

• Wikipedia:Systemic Bias on Wikipedia

Google Translate

• Gothamist - Google Translate blamed to linking NYC agency with 'Communist Party of China'

Generative AI (ChatGPT, etc.)

• Bloomberg - Generative AI takes stereotypes and bias from bad to worse

• Forbes - The Hollywood Writers' Stirke: 3 reasons not to back down on AI

Algorithms and Bias

• Algorithms and polarization (Butler - Introduction to College Research)

• Algorithmic Justice League

• Brookings - Algorithmic bias detection and mitigation: Best practices and policies to reduce consumer harms