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Essay On Information Evaluation

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Information Evaluation Researching over the years has become much more manageable than in the past. A simple Google search nowadays will provide thousands of hits depending on the topic. This allows for an individual to have an infinite amount of knowledge at their fingertips. Whether or not that knowledge is credible is highly debatable. Credible research can’t simply be pulled from thin air-or in this case by a simple tap on a keyboard. In order to decide whether or not an article is actually credible calls for some work, which means the first hit on a Google search might not be the best option. In this paper, I will examine two articles intended for different audiences to decide whether or not they are credible. I will be considering …show more content…

On page one under the headline Walsh writes, “Human Beings will be able to adapt-or at least the richer ones will.” This has very little to do with what the article’s title states and isn’t drawn back until page two of the article. “Human beings-especially relatively rich ones- will muddle through, adapting to a warmer, more parasite ridden world.” (Infectious Disease) I believe that these statements try to attract those with middle class backgrounds, essentially the majority of the general public, to the facts he is presenting. He briefly touches on how impoverished areas will be more affected but adding this narrative doesn’t add validity to his argument. Walsh includes several statistics and facts but provides little to no evidence as to where the data originated from. On page one of the article, he claims that malaria kills about 650,000 people a year. (Infectious Disease) That’s a very large number not to have any source tied to it. Did he do the math himself? Did he hop onto Wikipedia and snatch the first set of data he could find? I don’t know. There is no doubt that this article presents information that is relevant to the topic, but the validity of such information is heavily questioned when the author-who lacks scientific background-presents facts without backing. The second article I read was written by five authors, Sonia Altizer, Richard S Ostfeld,

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