...EVALUATING HISTORICAL SOURCES Historians most often use written sources, but audio and visual materials as well as artifacts have become important objects that supply information to modern historians. Numerical data are explained in written form or used in support of a written statement. Historians must be aware of the climate of opinion or shared set of values, assumptions, ideas, and emotions that influence the way their sources are constructed and the way they perceive those sources. In addition, an individual's own frame of reference-- the product of one's own individual experiences lived--must be acknowledged by the perceptive historian in order to determine the reliability and credibility of a source in relation to others. Good historical writing includes: a clear argument that has both logical and persuasive elements interpretations that strive to be as objective as possible but openly acknowledging the underlying concerns and assumptions something new rather than simply re-hashing the work of other authors--sometimes asking old questions and finding new answers or asking questions which never have been asked a response to debates in the field of history, either by challenging or reinforcing the interpretations of other historians evidenced in the footnotes and biography Historical sources are typically divided into two categories: primary and secondary sources. Depending on the historian's intent, some sources change their designation. Determining what sort of...
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...Evaluating Credibility and Validity of Sources: We learned that it is important to evaluate the credibility of the source and make a judgement on its relevance to our topic/argument. Credibility can be validated based off on the background of the author, impartiality, style and tone of article and currency. For instance for an argument on animal rights as described in…, the argument can be presented in different ways depending on the specialization of the author. A phychologist, philosopher or economist might present the argument in different style. Also, the author’s personal interest to the subject might affect the an author’s opinion or treatment to the subject. For instance, an author who is vegetarian is likely to argue against using animals for food and may present argument in a way that’s less than impartial. The publication Alongwith the author’s background, it is also important to validate the author’s personal interest associated to the subject ; We also learned that a special interest or preference might affect an author’s opinion or treatment to subject. In the simplest terms, a declared vegetarian is likely to argue against using animals for food and may present those arguments in a way that’s less than impartial. The writing style and tone is another way to form credibility and validity of sources of information. You should determine whether the tone is professional or not. If it is indeed professional and the tone is for the targeted audience...
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...needed to change and they were willing to do that for themselves and others. They decided that if they wanted it done they had to do it themselves. Thomas and Samuel, along with many others, realized that the way things were being done was not benefiting them like it should have. They believed that somebody needed to do something to change it and it just so happened to be them. 2. Explain the importance of building a foundation for critical and creative thinking when evaluating historical events such as the Boston Tea Party. First, you have to think about what you are looking for and you have to find the truth behind it all. Another words, you do not want to get any information mixed up or confused. Just because you think you know something does not mean it is true. You have to pay close attention to what you are doing because you need all the details before evaluating anything. Your opinion is just that, it has no truth to it and if you base historical events on your opinion, it will fall through. You must make sure you have...
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...Foucault’s (1984) support of post-modernism is defined along the lines of scientific development through the “Enlightenment” era, which has, he claims, set limitations on the way that science can confirm a modern society. More so, Foucault (1984) argument for post-modernism attempts to explore the social and cultural conditions of 20th century life, which make the 18th century philosophy of Immanuel Kant and other Enlightenment era thinkers irrelevant in terms of understanding modern issues in contemporary society during the 1980s: This ethos implies, first, the refusal of what I like to call the 'blackmail' of the Enlightenment. I think that the Enlightenment, as a set of political, economic, social, institutional, and cultural events on which we still depend in large part (Foucault...
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...Writing a Research proposal and Tips for Literature Review By: Shantiram Dahal 1. Background Human being is the unique product of the nature. In comparison with the other animals, they have most developed nervous and mental system which is very helpful to produce sounds and symbols (letters and numbers) that make possible the communication and recording of their questions, observations, experiences and ideas. To satisfy the curiosity and solving problems of daily life they involve in investigation. In modern times the complexities of human beings are increasing. To reduce such complexities, they have to conduct different research activities. Research is the essential part of graduate and post graduate program. Without conducting any academic research the objectives of the course will not be fulfilled. But conducting research is not as easy as we thought. It is a systematic investigation to acquire new knowledge, information's, facts, appropriate solution to a problem, deduce theory and generalization. It helps scholars to expand the area of knowledge and further study. There are various micro steps should be followed by the teachers for effective academic research. Before conducting research, the researcher have to submit the research proposal for approvable. When the research proposal is approved by the department then the research should be conducted consultation with the research guide. 2. Research proposal The preparation of research proposal is...
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...critical thinking skills you have gained so far and referring to the materials provided for this assignment, identify two possible strategies that Thomas Hutchinson or Samuel Adams likely used to develop and improve their thinking as those historical events unfolded prior to taking a stand and acting according to their beliefs. Two strategies’ that Thomas Hutchison and Samuel Adams used were weighing out all the pros and cons and solicitation. Thomas Hutchison felt that all ties need to be maintained with England to keep the peace between them and their colonies. Therefore weighing out all the pros and cons to increase the trade for the colonies so that it would put them in a better position financially, could have been a strategy they likely used. Basically the pros and cons show the positive and negatives of taxation without representation. This could have likely been determined through solicitation of opinions among the colonists, in which a number of them agreed with the radicals. 2. Explain the importance of building a foundation for critical and creative thinking when evaluating historical events such as the Boston Tea Party. The importance of building a foundation for critical and creative thinking when evaluating historical events is to consider the facts of the things that happened. In other words the things that we know were true. The reason it is important to create a foundation of creative thinking is because along with the facts we should also consider...
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...Internet, media (journals, news papers) and encyclopedias, almanacs and dictionaries. Conducting research on the Internet for our courses is going to make evaluating the sources for validity necessary. Unlike the university library collection – “evaluated and selected for usefulness and reliability by educated librarians” – websites and Internet resources are not necessarily evaluated by anyone. That’s why we have to use our critical thinking in evaluating those sources. Using the academic or governmental directories is in our advantage because we know that somebody screened them and listed only those that were reliable and updated. An easy to use tool for evaluating the Internet sources was offered by Robert Harris, professor and author of WebQuester: A guide book to the web. It’s called CARS test for information quality (Credibility, Accuracy, Reasonableness and Support). What we have to question using this test would be anonymous materials, negative evaluations of the materials, little or no evidence of quality control and bad grammar or misspelled words. You have to ask yourself who the author is and whether or not he is a recognized expert. Some signals of lack of accuracy would be lack of date, (you have to know how recent the source is), generalizations or one sided views that do not acknowledge opposing arguments. We also have to evaluate the sources where extreme or emotional language is used, sources with conflict of interest, inconsistency or contradictions. Statistics...
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...improving streets to suit the need of citizens. They support their statements with evidence through examples of successful streets from around the world and provide new theories as a guideline to enhance existing streets and communities. In addition, the authors support their argument by studying their own designs and evaluating historic street examples. They analysed their favourite cities, interviewed their colleagues for their list of favourite cities and travelled to a number of cities around the world to examine the current situation in each city to support their argument. How your study relates to the article: This book includes the principles needed to create better spaces for humans. It reveals key elements that many modern street designs lack by examines hundreds of examples of street designs around the world. For instance, it argues that Kensington High Street is a successful street. It demonstrates how the street can be transformed from a traffic-dominated street to an innovative public space. This book explores the elements of a traditional street and historical urban design. Therefore, it will help in providing background information for the extended essay. Furthermore, it will support the argument of the essay as it examines successful cities. Although this paper is useful in analysing successful street designs’ however, it does not examine people’s physiological response to the design and climate is barely mentioned in this book. Compare and contrast different...
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.... (TCO A) Which of the following statements is not an objective of financial reporting? (Points: 5) Provide information that is useful in investment and credit decisions. Provide information about enterprise resources, claims to those resources, and changes to them. Provide the liquidation value of a company. Provide information that is useful in assessing cash flow prospects. 2. (TCO A) The Financial Accounting Standards Board employs a "due process" system which (Points: 5) has all CPAs in the United States vote on a new Statement. enables interested parties to express their views on issues under consideration. identifies the accounting issues that are the most important. requires that all accountants receive a copy of financial standards. 3. (TCO A) The body that has the power to prescribe the accounting practices and standards to be employed by companies that fall under its jurisdiction is the (Points: 5) SEC AICPA IASB GASB 4. (TCO A) The cash method of accounting: (Points: 5) is used by most publicly-traded corporations for financial statement purposes. is not in accordance with the matching principle for most publicly-traded corporations. is often used on the income statement by large, publicly-held companies. All of the above is true. 5. (TCO A) Which of the following is an ingredient of relevance? (Points:...
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...regular basis. William Deresiewicz makes compelling suggestions in his article “Faux Friendships”; his ideas and modernized definitions on the truth behind the word “friend” makes a good arugument. Though there are differences and similarities of the arguments of Josh Rose and William Deresiewicz on the issue of Facebook’s connectivity, neither author is fully persuasive; there is a middle ground between the two that better explains the Facebook’s role in modern human connectivity. Josh Rose presents a fleeting, generalized argument, lacking raw facts. While the article is an op-ed, which inherently demands the author’s opinion, Josh Rose uses his opinion as the main backing. He says “social media is not cold, just complex,” (57) and due to the complexity he simply drops the topic. This is the author’s one attempt at addressing the opposition. To him the opposition believes social media is cold, and his response is that social media is complex. He neither properly establishes the opposition nor properly refutes the opposition. His vague generalizations are rampant; Rose calls the issue “paradoxical and confusing,” using that as a stepping stone to a rant on human nature and human progress, seemingly unrelated to his initial argument. Moreover, the pages are dripping with emotional appeal. Mentioning his son and how any tiny bit of...
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...The first time that I began writing the English academic essay is three years ago. In order to apply for universities in America, I should take the SAT test. In the test, the hardest part for me is writing. At that time, I realized that writing is never easy for an international student. It is a big challenge to write an academic paper by using the second language. The argument, thesis, word choices and grammar always bother me. However, I know that writing is the most important skill for a college student, so I never stop practicing and improving it. I took a writing class 20C and 39A in my first year. Both of them helped me a lot to improve writing skills. Last quarter, I took 39B, which was my first time to know rhetorical writing. When I take writing 39C this quarter, I learn deeply about the rhetorical and research...
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...Richard Rorty The nature of knowledge has been of great concern to many prominent thinkers and philosophers who may represent different historical periods or schools of thought. Many of them examine the ways in which people can determine whether a certain premise is valid or not. This paper is aimed at discussing Richard Rorty’s approach to the interpretation of such a concept as truth. One should keep in mind that Rorty is a representative of pragmatism; according to this theory, truth can be described as a “changing, subjective, and relative” phenomenon (414). In particular, it is necessary to evaluate his claim that “we commend a statement as true when it passes the tests that our community uses to distinguish what is true from what is false” (416). In other words, this argument implies that a person can accept anything as truth, provided that it is compatible with the standards of validity that are adopted by a group. Overall, this argument should not be overlooked because it highlights the unreliability of human knowledge; nevertheless, its relativism can be used to justify absurd or even atrocious ideas that can eventually prove to be disastrous. These are the main issues that should be discussed more closely. Overall, Richard Rorty believes that individuals accept something as truth if it passes the “procedures of justification” established in a certain community (416). In this context, the term justification procedures can be described as the tools or tests which...
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...There are different theories that relate to the global economy. One of these theories is the world systems theory, which was developed by Wallerstein. This theory acts as a model that describes all the changes that resulted in shaping the world into what it is today. Its focus is specifically on the changes that took place in Western Europe a few centuries ago during a period of significant economic development. The world systems theory saw the division of the world into some three parts, which are the core, the semi-periphery, and the periphery. The core mainly comprised those countries that were economically developed as the United States, countries from Western Europe, and Japan. The semi-periphery included those countries from Asia that were less developed while the periphery included those countries that were very rich in resources, but very poor and highly underdeveloped. These countries were mainly from Africa and Latin America (Frank, 2001). The world systems theory takes a Marxian approach in understanding the lack of development particularly in Latin America and Africa. This theory is materialist as it oversees politically and cultural, the collective and religious characteristics of the country all determined by the economy and it is an analysis of the system because all is perceived as one organization. The world systems theory is an analysis of capitalism and thus it finds its origination in the Annales School and the dependency theories. This theory was developed...
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...(A) 1.On the Genealogy of Morality is a philosophical treatise by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, first published in 1887, and is also a follow-up to Beyond Good and Evil. , a book previously written by Nietzsche. 2. This book is composed of a preface and three additional sections which discuss the ways in which our views of morality have changed. He goes through history and gives a timeline of how morality has changed up until the time of when the book was written. One major point of Nietzsche is that there is a difference between a thing and its meaning. He argues that things don’t have an inherent meaning, and that the meaning of those things have changed over time. In the books he connects this concept with or view of morality, and in particular to good and evil. Thus he arrives at a conclusion that there isn’t any objective and inherent truth to morality. He concludes the one can only have a true understanding of things only when we realize that the meaning of certain things has changed overtime. In this book he explains this in further detail with his “will to power” perspective. (3) Outline- Prologue 1) Good and Evil, Good and Bad A) Faulty Explanations of Morality B) Meaning of Good C) Change in language - Change in power D) Jews as Priestly class - Revaluation of values E) Lambs and Birds of Prey F) Slave Morality - Justice -Christian Hatred2 Guilt, Bad Conscience, and Related Matters A) Promises -human predictability B) Guilt C) Suffering ...
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...Book and Film Contemporary Segment: I An Analysis of Warren’s Anchorites and Their Patrons in Medieval England And Newby’s Historical Drama the Anchoress Anchoritism, a tradition where individuals voluntarily relinquish their freedom for an eternity of solidarity in the confinement of a cell, is arguably one of the most shocking traditions of medieval England. It is the modern reaction of bewilderment and even horror that a person could elect such a fate that manifests the immense cultural difference from the medieval era to our own. Through her historical assessment, Ann K. Warren sheds light on the factors that have generated this perplexing phenomenon. A predominant argument that can be drawn through the analysis of Warren’s writing is the notion of sacrifice as means to salvation. “Medieval England was an environment in which individuals chose to become religious recluses in order to assure their own salvation.” (17) The cell of enclosure was equated with a prison into which the anchorite propelled himself for fear of hell and for love of Christ. The eternal punishment of hell might be escaped by the lifetime refusal of escape from the anchorhold. Therefore, by sacrificing the freedoms of the outside world and fighting against perpetual temptations of desire, a “union with Christ could be achieved in this life.” (93) In order to fully experience the “high” of salvation, one must first know the “low” of suffering. The internalization of these “psychological rewards”...
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