Comm 200: Comments on yesterday's discussion, some terms to look out for...

I thought the discussion was good, even if we had different versions of the reading due to printout variances. In the future, let's all try to print outr the "printer friendly version" of the online articles if they are available.

I thought some key terms came up and I will be developing over the course a "key terms page" with HTML that will act as an online glossary. That said, Investingating Communication has an extensive glossary and I would like you to use it when you need to. Here are the following key terms you should look up...

Anecdotal Evidence
Authority
Claim
Evidence
Empirical
Intuition
Personal Experience
Reliability
Unit of Analysis
Warrant

You should look these up and see if you can apply them not only to our readings in the future, but all of your work in every class at Denison. Say a professor makes an assertion that we know what kind of armor was used in the Penelopennesian War, ask them what kind of "empirical evidence do we have to make such a claim". It's not being uppity (unless you are doing it simply to be difficult), but inquisitive. These are good questions to ask because they draw us further into a conversation rather than simply accepting a bunch of claims because of the authority of those who dispense them. It's ok to be critical in this manner, no matter how annoyed some people get. I will continue to talk about this later.

About the article: The more I read it the more convinced I am about the hard work that one performs when one does long term research. It's something that anyone with a degree needs to understand since you will most likely have to perform, at least once in your life, a kind of "long term research project". In fact, this may happen many times over. Do not get frustrated by not getting quick results, Quick results tend to be cheap and just like anything cheap it usually loses whatever value it has just as quickly as one got it.

See you tomorrow!