Asking the Right Questions 11th—

Asking the Right Questions 11th——CH8&9

——How good is the evidence?

Like a gold prospector closely examining the gravel in her pan for potentially high-quality ore, we must closely examine the evidence to determine its quality.

大部分推论（reasoning）都包含事实断言（factual claims)，断言越可靠，沟通者的论证越有说服力。评判推论是否合理，就要判断支撑推论的断言是否可靠。断言是否有证据支撑？如果有，这些证据有多充分？

证据的可靠性取决于证据的种类，只要证据使用恰当，每种证据都会是有效的好证据。重要的是我们要学会如何评估每种证据。学会问： How is the the evidence? 这个证据可靠吗？

我们既要学会审视别人的证据，同时在我们沟通、写作是要学会使用可靠的证据。

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Words & Phrases (每日五词）

1. made inroad into

to make some progress towards achieving something difficult

进展

2. rave about

赞不绝口；极力夸奖；If you rave about something, you speak or write about it with great enthusiasm.

3. discrepancy

an illogical or surprising lack of compatibility or similarity between two or more facts

悬殊, 迥异, 差异, 不符

4.extraneous

irrelevant or unrelated to the subject or matter being dealt with

无关的：5. sleight of hand

5. cornucopia

丰盛;丰富;丰饶；A cornucopia of things is a large number of different things.

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Summary of chapter 8&9

In chapter 8 and 9, the author tells us, as a critical thinker, how to ask questions about factual claims. The more dependable the factual claims, the more persuasive the communications.

To judge the claims, we need to ask three questions

Why should I believe it?

- Does the claim need evidence to support it?

- If yes, how good is the evidence?

- What is evidence?

Evidence is explicit information shared by the communicator that is used to back up or to justify the dependability of a factual claim. In prescriptive arguments, evidence will be needed to support reasons that are factual claims; in descriptive arguments, evidence will be needed to directly support a descriptive conclusion.

To evaluate evidence, we need to ask two questions below：

-  what kind of evidence it is?

-  Does an author’s evidence provide dependable support for her claim？

Eight kinds of evidence are listed in the two chapters as below:

-  intuition

- personal experiences

-  case examples

-  testimonials

-  appeals to authorities or experts

-  personal observations

- research studies

-  analogies

Please keep in mind, each kind of evidence can be good evidence if appropriately used. It can help support an author’s claim. On the other side, if not properly used, the evidence will not support the claim. we must evaluate evidence with caution.

导图

感悟：

现在我们购物、吃饭、旅行总是离不开的是看评论、查攻略。购物要去研究评论，吃饭要去看点评，旅行要查攻略。我们经常被诸如”某某地最不能错过的十大美食美景“之类的文章蛊惑。看过、吃过后才知道just so so。巨大的信息量给我们带来便捷的同时，也给我们筛选有效证据带了巨大的困难。

这涉及两种类型的证据：一是个人经历，二是以权威的网站为平台，提供似乎是权威的证据。由于每个人的背景、经历、价值观等等不同，对同一事物会有不同的评价，当各种评价掺杂在一起，会严重影响你的判断。

春节去泰国游玩的时候，我们用Tripadvior（猫途鹰APP）选择饭馆，在兰塔岛的时候，这个APP的确很挺靠谱。但到大城市曼谷的时候，它完全不灵了。初五下午我们四个人在房间里花了一个小时认真琢磨Tripadvior上的评价，最后综合各种因素，终于达成一致，找了一家好四星半的烤鸭馆，据说有106年的历史，看上去很FANCY的样子。我们带着满满期待，指着破五能吃上饺子。结果，跟着导航走到目的地的时候，首先是根本没有找到这家烤鸭馆。仔细搜索后，发现一家卷闸门半开的小铺居然就是这家馆子。然后当我们走进弯腰打算一探究竟的时候，里面的店员居然把卷帘门拉的更低了，完全拒客的态度，通过低矮的卷闸门，只看到几张小桌子，是很小的苍蝇馆，跟我们想象完全不一样。原来的计划是在飞机上不吃机餐，晚上到曼谷吃顿大餐。不但没找到预期的馆子，还饿的前心贴后背，当时真是绝望啊，差点饿瘫在曼谷的街头。