Week 4: Thinking About Evaluation (Example)
This week, we’ll take a look at selectding sources and work on finding ideas for choosing credible sources to work in that ‘evidence’ piece of the MEAL Plan: again, the link to that handout….Links to an external site.
main idea
cited evidence
analysis.
What makes a source credible?
Imagine you are working to talk about ways to support members of the United States military for a community service project.
Where do you begin looking? Likely on Google, yes?
But how can we know if a source is credibe?
The ending of the web page can help a lot– .gov is govenment–.org is an organization that is not-for-profit–.edu is an educational source — .com is a regular, commercial address.
With that knowledge, are the sources below credible for an at Troy? Why or Why not?
https://www.uso.org/stories/2853-how-can-i-support-the-troops-5-ways-you-can-help-deployed-soldiersLinks to an external site. / USO link on supporting the TroopsLinks to an external site.
https://www.defense.gov/Resources/Military-Support-Organizations/Links to an external site. / Government web page on military support and reliefLinks to an external site.
https://childmind.org/article/what-civilians-can-do-to-support-military-members/Links to an external site. / Child Mind Institute’s info on supporting troopsLinks to an external site.
Once you’ve reviewed the links and make your choice upon which one(s) to address, we move to the next step:
How could you let the reader know about what the source means to you, the author?
You can introduce the source with what we’ll call signal phrases–as they ‘signal’ that an outside source is going to be used and define what that source means to the writerLinks to an external site..
Select one of the shared sources, and put that source in context using a signal phrase to show the reader how you define the source–why you find it credible and worthy of being used alongside your own ideas.
And example of a body paragraph might look like this:
main idea: X is important to America today.
cited evidence: In fact, a 2002 article by Mr. X. a noted expert in y, adds that “90% of Americans support focusing on this issue more than we do now” (4)
analysis: Therefore, we can use this evidence to advance the cause of X and to ….
Post your answer on the MEAL Plan, and you may choose to write several paragraphs as we did last week.
A key way to save time here is to mine any key quotes, stats, or facts from the source–and go ahead and plug those into the ‘evidence’ space of the MEAL Plan. That way, you have it ready to go when you return to write out your body paragraph(s).
REMEMBER: you are asked to post your initial reply by Thursday night of each week.
And your initial post should be around 200-250 words–so, around a page.