Examining and Evaluating Evidence Supporting Evidence

CM 1190 Examining and Evaluating Evidence Supporting Evidence Unit 4.1 Evaluating Academic texts and Identifying Supporting Evidence

Introduction to Unit 4 In Unit 4 we will discuss: • Evaluating Academic texts and identifying Supporting Evidence • Following Writing Patterns • Examining Evidence • Examining Graphical Evidence

Evaluating Technical and Academic Texts The source of a reading is important when deciding if the information contained in the reading is reliable or credible.

Evaluating Technical and Academic Texts A report on the study of different cooking oils made this statement “When choosing fats, olive oil is the healthiest choice”. One of the organizations above paid for the study. How does that change your feeling about the statement?

Understanding Supporting Evidence Supporting evidence supports the main idea - like the legs of a table or the columns of a building.

Understanding Supporting Evidence Evidence provides the basis by which we know something to be true. برهان دليل

Identifying Supporting Evidence Context Clues • There are five reasons why… • There are two kinds of… • There are several types of…

Identifying Supporting Evidence Signal Words • First… • For example… • Additionally… • Consequently… • Therefore… • Finally… • In conclusion…

Identifying Details Details are individual facts that support the main idea. Sometimes details are grouped into small clusters. Major details are those that unite all the other details. Minor details support the major detail.

Practice Identifying Supporting Evidence… Identify the supporting evidence in the reading below. Social health insurance is where a nation's entire population is eligible for health care coverage and this coverage and the services provided are regulated. Additionally in almost every country, state or municipality with a government health care system a parallel private, and usually for-profit, system is allowed to operate. This is sometimes referred to as two-tier health care. For example the United States currently operates under a mixed market health care system. Government sources account for 45% of U.S. health care expenditures. (Continue to next slide)

Practice Identifying Supporting Evidence… Private sources account for the remainder of costs, with 38% of people receiving health coverage through their employers and 17% arising from other private payment such as private insurance and out-of-pocket co-pays. Health system reform in the United States usually focuses around three suggested systems, with proposals currently underway to integrate these systems in various ways to provide a number of health care options. First is single-payer, a term meant to describe a single agency managing a single system. Second are employer or individual insurance mandates. Finally, there is consumer-driven health, in which systems, consumers, and patients have more control of how they access care. (Continue to next slide)

Practice Identifying Supporting Evidence… Over the past thirty years, most of the nation's health care has moved from the second model operating with not-for-profit institutions to the third model operating with for-profit institutions; the greater problems with this approach have been the gradual deregulation of Health Maintenance Operators (HMOs) resulting in fewer of the promised choices for consumers, and the steady increase in consumer cost that has marginalized consumers and burdened states with excessive urgent health care costs that are avoided when consumers have adequate access to preventive health care. Source: Adapted from “Health Care” (2010) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care

CM 1190 End of Unit 4.1

CM 1190 Examining and Evaluating Evidence Unit 4.2 Writing Patterns

Understanding Writing Patterns A writing pattern is the way a writer uses supporting evidence. A pattern is something that repeats, which causes it to be predictable.

Understanding Writing Patterns A writing pattern is a way of organizing and repeating elements within a piece of writing to help make the form and content predictable. Readers read many different texts that follow different patterns. After time, readers become able to predicthow different texts will be organized.

Important Writing Patterns for Health Science Students Health Science students are primarily interested in communicating: How things work.  Process pattern How things are similar or different from one another.  Comparison and Contrast pattern How things impact or affect one another.  Cause and Effect pattern

Process Pattern Things come in a specific order for an important reason. Read the following text. Why has it been ordered in this way? What clues help guide your reading? Operation of a Blood Glucose Meter First wash your hands and dry them well before doing the test. Next use an alcohol pad to clean the area that you're going to prick. With many glucose meters, you get a drop of blood from your fingertip. After that, prick yourself (usually finger) with a sterile lancet to get a drop of blood. Then place the drop of blood on the test strip. Finally, follow the instructions for inserting the test strip into the glucose meter. The meter will give you a number for your blood sugar level.

Process Pattern Common process pattern clues include: • Colons (:), semicolons (;), or numbers. • Transition phrases like ‘first’, ‘next’, and ‘finally’. • References to steps, dates, or times. • Words like ‘series’, ‘process’, or ‘sequence’.

Comparison and Contrast Pattern Things are presented in terms of similarities, differences or both. Read the selection below. What is being compared or contrasted? How do you know? Halon differs from all other extinguishing agents in the way it puts out fire. Its essential extinguishing ability lies in its capacity to chemically react with the oxygen and put out the fire immediately, without leaving the kind of mess and damage that can be caused to electrical equipment by water, foam or dry powder. Like carbon dioxide, halon is unsuitable for use in open areas. If you spray it into the open air, it disperses almost as soon as it is sprayed, but it is highly effective in closed areas. Carbon dioxide works by displacing all of the oxygen in the compartment, suffocating the fire. Halon, on the other hand, works by chemically interrupting the burning process, which means that it requires a fraction of the amount. Morgan & Regan (2008)

Comparison and Contrast Pattern Common comparison and contrast pattern clues include: • Compound sentences • Comparison expressions like ‘similarly’, ‘likewise’, and ‘both’. • Contrast expressions like ‘on the other hand’, ‘although’, ‘unlike’, and ‘however’.

Cause and Effect Pattern Things are discussed in terms of conditions, reasons, or results. Read the following text. What is the cause? What is the effect? How do you know? Why Asthma? The reason for the increase in asthma in children is not known, but it may be due to more widespread use of vaccines and antibiotics as well asto the fact that children are spending more time indoors, or to both. Increased use of vaccines and antibiotics may have shifted the activity of a special subgroup of white blood cells (called lymphocytes) in the body from fighting infection to releasing chemical substances that promote the development of allergies. Alternatively, because children are spending more time indoors and living in better-insulated homes than they were in the past, the exposure to potentially allergic substances is increased. There are few data to support either theory. Adapted from http://www.merck.com/mmhe/sec04/ch044/ch044a.html

Cause and Effect Pattern Common cause and effect pattern clues include: • Look for complex sentences – especially “If…then” or “When…then”. • Transition words like because, consequence, result, effect, cause, due to, etc.

CM 1190 Examining and Evaluating Evidence Unit 4.3 Examining Evidence

Examining Evidence Evidenceincludes everything that is used to determine or demonstrate the truth of an assertion about something.

Examining Evidence Evidence is gathered in various ways, such as: Surveys Studies Testing Experiments

Types of Evidence Theory Evidence This is where one uses conjecture or opinion to support a concept. This is not evidence based in fact.

Types of Evidence Empirical Evidence This is where you prove something or research by directly observing or experimenting. This evidence IS based in fact.

Types of Evidence Read the following extract and decide is this kind of research based on theory or with empirical evidence. Almost 100 students took experiments in which they drove virtual cars. While driving they had to provide answers about the layout of buildings on their campus, or check that statements made by others about relative positions of building were correct. The researchers monitored various aspects of their driving performance while they performed these tasks. Source: Adapted from J. Billingsley. (2005). “Listen Up: Any Cell Phone Use While Driving Is Risky”. Health Day News.

Ways Evidence is Presented Look at the following extract

Ways Evidence is Presented The evidence in the extract above is presented with a foot note. The number represents a footnote at the bottom of the page or sometimes at the end of an article where you can find proof of the facts being presented. The statement “A positive attitude is a very important aspect of aging. Many older people have the same negative stereotypes about aging that young people do”. Is based on research that was done by J.W. Rowe and R.L. Kahn in their book Successful Aging. Which was published in 1998 in New York by Dell Publishing.

Ways Evidence is Presented Evidence can be presented in the form of a graph • Notice in the bottom corner • (NASA) which is the source • of the information in the • chart. • Knowing the source helps • support the credibility of the • evidence

Ways Evidence is Presented Evidence that is supported with proof of a study or research is empirical and based in findings. When presented, this is usually presented with a footnote, reference or indication of the study’s support. Evidence that is opinion based or in the theory stage and has no basis in fact is not supported. This would therefore have no reference points.

Ways Evidence is Presented Which graph is more credible? Why? Note: All graphics retrieved from Google Images

Examining and Evaluating Evidence Supporting Evidence