Welcome to Topic 2: Critical Thinking and Analysis. This topic will help you to evaluate the sources you want to use in your work, decide how you want to use them and be more effective in that use. You will develop a critical eye towards what you read, hear and discuss to be better able to support your point of view. In this topic, you will learn about and practise:
- Academic reading
- Critical thinking
- Learning styles and strategies
- Evaluating websites
- CDU Harvard referencing of websites and communications
- In-text referencing of websites and personal communications
- Paraphrasing.
These relate to the Subject Learning Outcomes:
- Discuss the written, verbal, listening and non-verbal communication skills in academic, professional and intercultural settings.
- Outline the critical thinking and academic research skills required to make informed decisions.
Welcome to your self-directed learning tasks for this week. Please ensure you complete these prior to attending your scheduled seminar with your lecturer.
The following tasks will enable you to critically evaluate your sources more effectively, particularly websites, and reference them correctly, both in-text and in your reference lists. You will complete these tasks independently.
Click on each of the following headings to read more about what is required for each of your pre-seminar learning tasks.
You will be doing a lot of reading on this topic, so watch this short video 10 Active reading strategies to pick up some ideas on being more effective in your reading. Make sure you take some notes as you will be asked to refer back to this learning later in the topic.
Watch this short video on note taking, How I take notes - Tips for neat and efficient note taking, and try to implement some of the ideas in the activities that follow in this topic. Compare the ideas to the notes you took in the previous activity. Is there anything you could change?
Follow this link to Vark Learn, read about the background to these modalities and do the Questionnaire.
According to VARK, how do you identify as a learner? Identify three (3) key takeouts from this website. Submit your answers to your reflective journal.
You can access the reflective journal by clicking on ‘Journal’ in the navigation bar for this subject.
Watch this talk by Tesia Marshik about learning styles and the importance of critical self-reflection. You might like to watch this two or three times to fully understand the concepts. How does this compare to your reading on VARK? Identify three (3) key takeouts from this video. Submit your answers to your reflective journal.
Searching for online information
Search strategies can be applied to search the internet for information effectively. It is important to remember that there is more to research than just using a search engine and typing some key words.
Firstly, it is important to think carefully about the search terms you will need to use to get the “best” information for your research (Dwyer 2016). When typing words into a search engine such as Ecosia.com, Google.com, Bing.com, Yahoo.com, type everything in lower case. Most search engines ignore capitalisation or may only pick up the capitalised word. Consider using similar words or phrases to find more information, especially if your initial search was not successful. For example, try using room attendant instead of housekeeper. Alternatively, you can use a thesaurus for help in finding other terms.
Phrase searching is when you use two or more words together to form a single concept. This can help narrow your search as some databases automatically treat a string of words as a phrase and search for its match. Depending on the database you use, it might search for the words individually, resulting in a broader and less precise search. Therefore, to ensure that the exact phrase is searched, enclose the words in double quotation marks (“”). For example “Gerald Lipman” or “Shaw and Smith”.
To broaden your search, you can do this by abbreviating a search term to its root word before searching for various word forms. Using a truncation symbolised by an asterisk (*), will enable you to represent various endings of the word. For example, cook* will find cook, cooks, cooking, cookery, etc.
Another use of an asterisk is as a wildcard (*). This can be usedwithin words to specify unknown or variable words due to the origin of the information. For example, colo*r will find both color and colour.
The minus sign (-) can be used to eliminate results containing certain words. You may want to use this when searching for a term that generates too many results. For example, hospitality -courses -training -jobs.
If you are using google.com, try using ‘operators’ or commands at the end of your search terms to refine your search results.
- site:edu – displays only educational websites (schools & universities)
- site:gov – displays only government websites
- site:gov.au – displays only Australian government websites
- filetype:pdf – displays only online PDF documents
- link:www.news.com/c~1.html – searches for other websites that link to the specified URL
‘Boolean operators’ can be used to combine key terms, which increases your chances of finding relevant information. The most common ones are and, or and not.
- The use of or will widen your search and bring up variants of the term in a single search.
- For example, “social media” OR “social networking sites” OR “online social networking”
- The use of and will allow for multiple concepts to be combined. This is how you can indicate that all the terms should be included in the search results.
- For example, “social media” AND recruitment AND employees
- The use of not will exclude an unwanted term.
- For example, “social media” NOT Facebook.
If your search results had too many sources, it is important to narrow your search to obtain a more relevant set of results. The following strategies can be undertaken:
- Limit your search by date, document type or language
- Remove a synonym (or alternative terms)
- Add another concept or key term using AND
- Use phrase searching where relevant
- Search using more specific terms
- Use NOT to eliminate an aspect of the topic you are interested in.
Analysing Information
As a university student, you are expected to critically analyse information (Dwyer 2016). This means that you need to keep an open mind and question claims being made by a source. Having an awareness of your personal views is important as this would affect how you think about the information you are reading. Whether your purpose is to get a definition, aiming to identify the main points of the argument, identify the claims being made, the evidence used, and the conclusions. Being aware of your personal views will enable you to reduce your personal bias and present a more balanced view in your assignment. As shown in the following image, to establish if the source or the information you are looking at is of good quality, you need to find out its currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose. The best sources include all these elements.
Ask yourself these questions, in this order:
- Is this information up to date (current)?
- Is this website directly related to my topic (relevant)? If not, find another one.
- Is the author qualified (authorised) to speak on the topic?
- Is the information believable? Does the website provide accurate information? Can the same information be found in another source?
- What is the objective (purpose) of the information? Is it unbiased? Can any bias (a clear preference for a particular opinion or point of view) be detected?
How do I evaluate a source of information 2021
Note
Note that objectivity is the least important element because even if a source is biased or, in other words, subjective, it can still be very useful as long as you are aware of its bias.
For example:
If you are researching LGBTQI rights, it is appropriate to visit religious websites to establish their attitude towards homosexuality. However, it is important to be aware of the fact that most religions have a biased view of homosexuality and are not likely to present it positively.
Be critical as you read the information or sources you gain. This will help you to decide which sources to use (Morgan 2021). How would you know if the website, blog, newspaper article, journal you are looking at is good enough to use?
Investigation
Many websites look professional and include references, authors’ names, and date it is last updated. But how much can you trust the websites to publish accurate information?
Therefore, to establish the sources’ credibility and objectivity, do the following:
RESEARCH THE AUTHOR
Use a reliable search engine (Ecosia, Google) to find the author’s name and your topic. See what comes up. Summarise the main points below:
RESEARCH THE ORGANISATION
Use a reliable search engine (Ecosia, Google) to find the name of the organisation. See what comes up. You may want to refer to Wikipedia for this information. Make a summary in your notes:
OWNER/SPONSOR OF WEBSITE
Find out who is the owner or the sponsor of the website.
All websites owners are required to register their websites and provide contact details. This information can be found on Who.is website. Go to http://who.is. Copy and paste the URL of your source into the search field.
Scroll down to the ‘RAW REGISTRAR DATA’ section (in a grey box). Find and record the following:
REGISTRANT NAME:
REGISTRANT ORGANISATION:
REGISTRANT CITY:
RESEARCH THE OWNER/SPONSOR
Use a reliable search engine (Ecosia, Google) to find the registrant’s name and organisation. See what comes up. You may want to refer to Wikipedia for this. Make a summary in your notes:
REGISTRATION and UPDATE DATE
Go back to the Who.is website. Find registration date (date the website was registered or created) and the update date (date contact details were last updated).
REGISTERED ON:
UPDATED ON:
- Protocol
- sub-domain
- domain name/website
- state code
- top-level domain
- country code
- file/page path
Another useful trick is to look at the website’s URL and find the top-level domain, which tells you what type of website it is.
| List of top-level domains | Common country codes | Australian state & territory codes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| .com | commercial business | .au | Australia | .sa | South Australia |
| .edu | educational body (school, university) | .uk | United Kingdom | .act | Australian Capital Territory |
| .ac | academic websites (universities only) | .de | Germany | .nsw | New South Wales |
| .gov | government department/agency | .ir | Iran | .vic | Victoria |
| .net | networks (group of organisations) | .af | Afghanistan | .wa | Western Australia |
| .org | non-profit organisation | .vn | Vietnam | .qld | Queensalnd |
| .mil | USA military website | .us | USA gov websites | .nt | Northern Territory |
| .asn | association | .nz | New Zealand | .tas | Tasmania |
NOTE: If a website does not have a country code, it is a US website by default. Here is a full list of internet country codes.
TOP-LEVEL DOMAIN/COUNTRY CODES
What is the top-level domain of your website? Does the URL contain any country or state codes? If so, write them down below and explain what they mean.
SOURCE EVALUATION
Now you have the necessary information to evaluate the quality of the website. Make a statement explaining whether you think this website is relevant, accurate, credible and objective. Explain how you arrived at this conclusion. Use what you have found out about your source to support your answers.
Now that you have decided that your website is of good quality - what do you do next? First, you must record its bibliographical details for reference purposes.
It will be crucial to develop your research and analytical skills as you undertake your chosen higher education pathway. These skills will be used in every subject you undertake within your course and developing an understanding early will help you improve how you research as well as providing your writing with the level of academic rigour expected. It will be important to refer back to this topic, not just for this subject but all subjects you undertake, as these key concepts are relevant to developing your academic writing skills.
Knowledge check
Complete the following four tasks. Click the arrows to navigate between the tasks.
Key takeouts
Congratulations, we made it to the end of the second topic! Some key takeouts from Topic 2:
- Don’t believe everything you read
- Don’t take your information from one source
- Consider the CRAAP framework when evaluating your sources
- If you’re not sure of your sources, don’t use them.
Welcome to your seminar for this topic. Your lecturer will start a video stream during your scheduled class time, you can access your scheduled class by clicking on ‘Live Sessions’ found within your navigation bar and locating the relevant day/class or by clicking on the following link and then click 'Join' to enter the class.
Click here to access your seminar.
The learning tasks are listed below, these will be completed during the seminar with your lecturer. Should you be unable to attend, you will be able to watch the recording which can be found via the following link or by navigating to the class through ‘Live Sessions’ via your navigation bar.
Click here to access the recording. (Please note: this will be available shortly after the live session has ended.)
In-Seminar learning tasks
The in-seminar learning tasks identified below will be completed during the scheduled seminar. Your lecturer will guide you through these tasks. Click on each of the following headings to read more about the requirements for each of your in-seminar learning tasks.
Working in a breakout room assigned by your lecturer during the scheduled seminar, design and share your own website evaluation checklist – create an entry in your reflective journal. Comment on two of your colleagues’ designs. You can update your own if you see some better ideas from your colleagues’ work.
Use your checklist to evaluate the following websites (you can do this together or individually):
Use the most recent CDU Harvard Referencing Guides to add the websites above into a correct reference list.
Using Gibb’s Cycle, reflect on what you have learned about academic skills this week. Post your response to the forum 'Topic 2" Forum Activity 1'.
You can also navigate to the forum by clicking on 'ESK100 Subject Forum' in the navigation bar for this subject.
Welcome to your post-seminar learning tasks for this week. Please ensure you complete these after attending your scheduled seminar with your lecturer. Your lecturer will advise you if any of these are to be completed during your consultation session. Click on each of the following headings to read more about the requirements for each of your post-seminar learning tasks.
Read pp. 378-382 of the prescribed text, Dwyer (2016) about critical thinking and analysis – how has this helped you manage the opinions in the pre-seminar tasks 1-4.
Write a short forum post to 'Topic 2: Forum Activity 2'.
Open and read the CRAAP analysis worksheet 1. Look at your first assignment in another subject at ICHM, to see how many sources you are required to use. List the websites you plan to use in your reflective journal, and use the Worksheet 2 to give them a brief evaluation based on the CRAAP framework – are they valid sources, and how do you know? Prepare a short paragraph based on your findings.
Start drafting your response for assessment 2– Argumentative Essay. Collect 2 articles and use the concepts from this topic to find relevant, accurate, credible and objective sources.
Each week you will have a consultation session which will be facilitated by your lecturer. You can join in and work with your peers on activities relating to this subject. These session times and activities will be communicated to you by your lecturer each week. Your lecturer will start a video stream during your scheduled class time, you can access your scheduled class by clicking on ‘Live Sessions’ found within your navigation bar and locating the relevant day/class or by clicking on the following link and then click 'Join' to enter the class.
Click here to access your seminar.
Should you be unable to attend, you will be able to watch the recording which can be found via the following link or by navigating to the class through ‘Live Sessions’ via your navigation bar.
Click here to access the recording. (Please note: this will be available shortly after the live session has ended.)
- Chapter 4: Morgan, P 2020, The business student’s guide to study and employability, 2nd edn., SAGE Publishing.
References
- Dwyer, J 2016, Communication for business and the professions: Strategies and skills, Pearson.
- How do I evaluate a source of information? Evaluating Information Sources-the CRAAP way 2021, https://libguides.cdu.edu.au/evaluation
- Morgan, P 2021, The business student’s guide to study and employability, 2nd edn., SAGE Publishing.
