Language Arts Cornell Notes:

Essential Question: (EQ)

How Do I Know If I Can Trust the Information in a Text?

CAN YOU DECIDE WHAT IS IMPORTANT?

Information you find in print or on the Web is not always trustworthy.

You have to critique information: You must figure out if info is: accurate, well-supported, and unbiased.

Claims and assertions are facts or opinions that present a position or idea.

It’s easy to accept a claim or assertion without thinking.

What are Claims and Assertions?

BUT! This is not a good idea. Not all are true!

What must a writer do when making claims or assertions?Any claim or assertion a writer makes must be supported with evidence. Below are examples:

I won three medals at the Olympics!

All seventh-graders love math!

[End of Section]

The best skateboards are made by the Skatezeez

Company!

*Sometimes a writer makes a broad assertion based on very little evidence. NOT COOL

*sometimes a writer’s “evidence” is just another claim or assertion.

EX:All seventh-graders love math because Joe and Cara beat all the

eighth-graders in the math contest!

All seventh graders love math because they are always studying.

How Can I Assess Evidence Provided in an Informational Text? Use the “Triple A’s!”

What are the “Triple A’s of Evidence?”

You should expect a writer to support claims and assertions with the “Triple A’s” of evidence.Is the writer’s evidence…(List all three!)

Adequate? Appropriate? Accurate?

What is this advertisement trying to show about “Fox” News?

Adequate Evidence: A writer must give enough evidence to support any claims.

What does adequate evidence mean?

If a claim is barely supported, or not supported at all, the evidence is inadequate.*I don’t think this girl has great evidence! Hehe!

A controversial claim needs more evidence—facts, statistics, and quotations—to support it. “Here, Mom.

Talk to Janie. She says it’s okay to have a party while her parents are out of town.”

Look for facts. Plenty of factual support often means the information is adequate.

We are a nation of couch potatoes, and our inactivity is showing up in increased rates of diseases like Type 2 diabetes.Even more worrying is the problem that more and more young children are getting this disease, which used to be considered an adult disease. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the number of overweight children has increased nearly 300 percent in the last 25 years, and too much extra weight can help cause diabetes.

Facts

What Facts Make this Passage more Convincing? (List 3 on your page.)

What does it mean to have accurate evidence?

Accurate Evidence To determine if evidence is accurate, or free from mistakes, ask these questions:

1-Is the writer

an expert in this field?

3-Are the sources cited factual and reliable?2-Can the info be

found in other sources?

If a writer uses words like all, each, or every, it is possible that you’re looking at inaccurate evidence.

What makes evidence inaccurate?

“Most bikers don’t bother with helmets. Everybody knows that wearing a helmet makes you look silly.”

Some people say junk food—too much sugar—is the problem. Others say our inactivity is to blame. In an article in the Williamson Sun, Jeff Rigs points out that many young people stop playing sports by the time they turn 13. Several people he interviewed blame elitism in sports, at all levels. If you don’t make the team in high school or junior high school, you just stop playing. Most of the money for sports is spent on very few players, the “best” players.

**Look for good sources in support of accurate information.

Major newspaper

How do I know if sources are accurate?

Appropriate Evidence When evidence is appropriate, it applies directly to the subject.

Look for Appropriate Evidence!

“Me? I can’t be bothered to vote. All politicians are crooks anyway.”

Evidence—even opinions —should be based on fact. Evidence should not rely on emotional appeal alone. Biased or slanted evidence is inappropriate.

Are any opinions backed up by facts?Unsupported opinions are examples of inappropriate evidence.

What can we do about this situation? We can spend more money for physical education, for one thing. In my opinion, we can also stop spending so much money on just a few sports that only a few people get to participate in—football, for example. We can spend more effort on sports that people can do their whole lives, like bicycling and swimming.

The writer treats this like a fact. Does the writer provide any evidence?

How Do I Know If I Can Trust the Information in a Text?

The “Triple A’s” of Evidence

What could be a problem with any evidence the student uses from this source?

Quick Check

[End of Section]

I got this information about galaxies from an old science magazine my dad had. I think the magazine was published in the 1950s.

How Do I Know If I Can Trust the Information in a Text?

The “Triple A’s” of Evidence