Lesson Summary
The greatest achievement of the human spirit is to live up to one's opportunities and make the most of one's resources.
Luc de Clapiers, French writer and moralist (1715–1747)
Sometimes when you have to make an important decision, you don't have all the facts you need to help you make the best choice. Other times, especially at work or school, you may be asked to produce evidence to justify a decision you've made. In this lesson, you'll discover the best ways to find the information you need to make and justify decisions and solutions to problems.
Many decisions and solutions don't require a lot of work. After all, you don't need to gather much information to decide when to study for an exam or whether to bake a pie or a cake. You already know the facts, so you simply use them to make a wise decision. But what if you don't know which facts to base a decision on? What if there are things you aren't familiar with that really need to be considered? That's where thinking critically comes into play. You do whatever you can to find accurate information about the missing details, knowing that the quality of a decision is only as good as the information used to make it.
Let's look at three resources that can supply information to help you make decisions: the Internet, the library, and human sources. We'll explore each, when to use it, how to get the most out of it, and its possible shortcomings.
Internet Resources
Research on the Internet doesn't have to be confusing, even though you can literally access billions of websites. You just need to know what you're looking for and the best way to find it. There are three basic investigative methods. The first is to use a search engine, like www. google.com, www.ask.com, or www.bing.com, where you enter a topic, or words that relate to the topic, and are provided links to sites with information about that topic. But search engines don't always distinguish between useful and not-so-useful sites. They simply list everything, sometimes thousands of links that seems to meet your search criteria.
Another way to search the Internet is by using subject directories. The great advantage of this method is that the sites the directories list have been chosen by qualified people. Websites deemed to be of poor quality are less likely to make the directory. Some directories even hire experts in various fields to write guides to their chosen subjects and also to provide links to related sites. Recommended subject directories include:
- About.com: thousands of subjects with links to a million websites
- Academic Info: consistently maintained to add free educational resources (for late high school level and above) while weeding out outdated ones
- Librarians' Internet Index: over 20,000 Internet resources selected as "the best" by librarians
- Infomine: aimed at university-level instructors and students, contains 110,000 Internet resources selected by university librarians
- The third way to find what you are looking for on the Internet is to search directly on a site at which you believe the information may be found. Here is a short list of such sites.
Encyclopedias
Encyclopedia.com: a free site that aggregates content from numerous reference works including Columbia Encyclopedia and World Encyclopedia
Britannica.com: the first few paragraphs of each article are free, so if you need very basic facts, chances are you will get them; for an annual fee you can have total access to the site
Education.yahoo.com/reference: search the American Heritage Dictionary, Gray's Anatomy, the U.S. Government's World Factbook, and others
Dictionaries
Dictionary.com: searches a dozen dictionaries at one time
M-W.com: Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary searched free; access to the unabridged edition is available for an annual fee
Other Fact-Checking Sites
www.bartleby.com/reference: search for thousands of free online classics of literature and nonfiction, and reference materials like Bartlett's Quotations, Oxford Shakespeare, Gray's Anatomy, and World Factbook
www.bibliomania.com: search for author biographies, as well as through full texts of fiction, drama, and poetry
www.findarticles.com: search back issues of over 300 magazines and journals covering a wide variety of subjects
www.nilesonline.com/data: links to find statistics and other facts about government, crime, health, politics, and more
www.refdesk.com: find maps, calculators, currency converters, newspapers (from local United States to international), as well as dictionaries and encyclopedias
www.martindalecenter.com: check facts on everything from world poetry to organic chemistry, patents to computer viruses
Roadblock to Good Resources
What is the most common obstacle to finding factual, pertinent information? It is the proliferation of poorly researched, or even knowingly false, data. Primarily found on the Internet, fiction posing as facts, or simply slipshod work, can look like the real thing because legitimate websites with accurate content reside side-by-side with poor quality sites. It can be difficult to tell the difference.
The best way to avoid getting poor information is to be suspicious. Do not take any information you find on the Internet as truth until you can substantiate it with duplicate information on at least three other sites. Read the tips in Lesson 8 for more about evaluating the quality and content of websites.
Tip
Compare the ideas and arguments of a person with others in the same profession. The more his or her views differ from the majority on the subject, the more critical you should be of the ideas.
The Library—Print Resources
Although it might sometimes seem otherwise, everything of interest that has ever been written is not on the Internet, nor can it be searched for on the Internet. There are still five important reasons to do research at the library.
- Librarians. These trained professionals know how to find what you are looking for, whether in the stacks or online.
- Non-searchable print. Millions of books and other print materials have not made it to the web. In addition, the human power to key in or scan every old, deteriorating text, such as back issues of journals, magazines, and newspapers, does not exist. But they may be found in libraries, either in print or on microfilm or micro-fiche.
- Reliability of information. Not all information on the Internet is accurate. Anyone can "publish" online, and it is not always easy to distinguish between reliable and unreliable websites. Many sites containing bogus information appear professional and well-written (see Lesson 8 for information on how to evaluate a website). Published books and periodicals, on the other hand, have been through many layers of safety nets before they reach the shelves of a library. They are typically written, edited, proofread, fact-checked, published, and then selected by a librarian for purchase.
- Finding anything that is not historical or current. The Internet is a great resource for information that is either very old or very new. For instance, you can find the Magna Carta, and current state and federal statutes, but legal research on anything in the early to mid-20th century is difficult to nearly impossible to find on the Internet.
- Price. The use of a library, including all of its electronic services, is free. Some of the research resources on the Internet are not. There are sites that give away some information, but charge for full access to their site. Others will not let you in at all unless you are a subscriber. Some Internet resources charge prohibitively high subscription prices. Libraries often pay these prices and provide full access.
Going to the Experts
Sometimes, you can't find out what you need to know from a website or the library. The information might be very timely, such as interest rates on mortgages that change daily, or it just might not be published (such as someone's opinion on a given subject). In such a case, you need to find a person or people who have the information you are looking for.
Experts are simply those who know their subjects and can be relied upon to supply correct information. They might know about it because they have studied it or worked with it long enough to be considered highly informed. Getting information from an expert can be simple. You might just have to look up a number in the phone book and make a quick call. Or, it can involve a number of steps. You might need to do some research first to find your expert. That could mean asking around or using the resources of your library or the Internet. Once you have a name and contact information, you can proceed to gather information.
The great benefit of finding an expert you can trust, who has the facts you need, is that he or she can save you time. Instead of hunting for information from sources that may or may not yield what you are looking for, you have a reliable source. A loan officer at your bank will know exactly what the current mortgage rate is and be able to explain the difference in cost, longterm, between a 15- and a 20-year mortgage. Related questions may be answered without consulting other websites or print resources. Recognizing that you don't have all the answers yourself is an important first step. Then you need to determine who or what you should consult and what questions to ask to find a solution. tip
Tip
Recognizing that you don't have all the answers yourself is an important first step. Then you need to determine who or what you should consult and what questions to ask to find a solution.
Checking Credentials
You can't rely on information you get from a so-called "expert" until you determine that he or she has the proper credentials. Ask questions. Where is this expert getting his or her information? On what sources does the person rely? How is he or she qualified to provide you with the information you seek? For example, let's say Marty wants to know how many people used the picnic area in the city park this summer. She calls the Recreation and Parks Department and asks if someone can help her. The person on the phone puts Marty on hold, and then gives her a number to answer her question. Marty should ask where the number came from: Is it the officially recorded number of people who reserved picnic space and how many people were in their parties, or is it an estimate of the number of people based on counts in previous years?
In Short
Your solutions and decisions are only as good as the information you use to make them. Sometimes you need only to deal with facts already known to you. In other instances, you may need to do some research.
The three best resources to consult are the Internet, the library, and other people (experts). Knowing how and when to use each type of resource can mean the difference between making an uninformed decision, and standing solidly behind the facts as you solve problems and decide among various options.
Skill Building Until Next Time
- If you've never used a meta-search engine, make a practice search. Compare your results with those from a resource you use frequently.
- Visit some sites mentioned in this lesson and see what each has to offer. Follow a few links that may be of interest to you.
- Before your next doctor's appointment, write some health-related questions you would like answered. Ask the expert during your exam.
Exercises for this concept can be found at Decision Making Resources Practice Exercises.
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