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We speak student!

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Using Arguments from the Web

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[ bird caws ]

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How can I support my argument with Internet research?

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Basically, in order to make an argument based on Internet research,

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you're gonna just do everything we've already talked about

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in the previous lessons.

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So this is a nice way to review all those strategies.

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The assignment is,

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"Here's your topic. Make an argument for or against it

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and cite sources."

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So what you're gonna do is

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first, do that Google search.

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Try to see what you can find.

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You're gonna then evaluate the credibility of your sources.

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If something's completely not usable,

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just throw it out.

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If you get TMZ or something like that

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or a tabloid, you're probably not gonna wanna use it.

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Throw it out.

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If you get something that's biased,

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subjective in one way or another,

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you don't have to throw it out yet, that's totally fine.

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But you'll get all your sources together.

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That's when you're gonna read through your sources.

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As you're reading through, you're gonna keep in mind

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what's subjective? What's biased? What's not?

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And then you're gonna decide

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do I agree with this source?

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So let's say you end up with three sources.

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Read them through.

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Do I agree with number one, number two, number three?

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Are they all saying the same thing?

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Are they saying different things?

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And then you're gonna say,

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"Okay, you know what?

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I disagree with source number one,

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agree with source number two,

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and disagree with source number three."

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Does that mean we throw out one and three?

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No. It means you use those to prove your own point.

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That's the counterargument.

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You say, "Source one says this,

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but they're wrong."

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So walk us through an example.

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Give us three sources

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we'd look at -

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good, bad, ugly, whatever. Something in between.

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And we kind of use that to our advantage.

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Okay. So let's say there's an article,

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"Do Celebrities Use Their Power for Good?"

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That's the topic.

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And you're arguing either "yes they do" or "no they don't."

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So we have three sources.

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First we've gone through all the junk and we've

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filtered it out.

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We found a tabloid, but we were like,

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"Eh, that person's actually still alive.

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It said they were dead.

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That baby doesn't have eight heads."

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So you moved it to the side.

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You end up with three sources.

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You have an article from People magazine

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that you have kept because it actually

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cites celebrities giving quotes.

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People magazine, in most cases,

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is not gonna be something you're gonna cite in a school paper.

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But if you're writing an article

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about whether or not celebrities do good,

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you can actually get quotes

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from celebrities from this.

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So you're gonna keep in mind that

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it's not necessarily the most credible source,

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but you're gonna use it.

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The next thing you're gonna use is

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an article from the New York Times

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about Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt

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and what they have done for the world.

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And just to kind of highlight that,

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you think about what celebrities do that you read about

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that you get lots of press for.

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You read, I don't know, various celebrities

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typically finding large constituencies

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and they put themselves at the front

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to be the spokesperson for it.

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Like Matt Damon trying to be a neutral voice on teaching

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out of the teacher's union,

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even though his mother is a teacher.

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He's trying to present himself as a credible, neutral source.

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You have other elements that --

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I guess things celebrities do

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that nobody writes about

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that are actually acts of kindness or good.

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So the Angelina and Brad thing is kind of interesting to me

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because they practice what they preach.

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They actually did it.

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And you don't adopt a child for a press release.

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A lot more work than that would be worth.

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So there it's a different respect.

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They actually are doing something they really believe in,

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not just to get lots of people to go to buy tickets to go to their next movie.

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So the whole notion of doing good and defining things ahead of time...

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Is that something we should be doing

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before we write the paper?

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Meaning do you come into it with an opinion?

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That it's research you're ferreting out

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so that you look like today's cable news network

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and you're supporting either the Republicans or the Democrats?

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Or is it more like

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you're actually trying to figure out...

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Like, is this all a waste of...

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Yeah, you're always gonna come in with an opinion.

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Almost always you're gonna come in with an opinion.

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But allow yourself to be proven wrong.

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It's never a bad thing to find out you're wrong.

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But you don't necessarily have to

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or you shouldn't necessarily come in with an opinion.

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But you need to understand

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that everyone you are reading

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is going to have an opinion.

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So if you come into this thinking,

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"Oh, celebrities are -- They're all hypocrites,

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they're not actually doing good things."

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Then you're gonna find --

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in whatever you read,

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you're gonna find support for your argument.

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If you come with a clean slate,

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you'll be a little bit more open

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to seeing both sides of it.

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Academics do this all the time.

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They're like, "Oh, you know what would make a really cool paper?

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If I wrote about how this specific author

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was influenced by this specific author."

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And then everything you read

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by author number one,

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you're like, "Aha, this is very Hemingway-esque, isn't it?"

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But if you weren't trying to prove that point,

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you might not see it.

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So if you do come in with your own opinion,

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take a step back and remember that

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so that you don't only see that in the sources you've got.

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To come back to your point,

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the example. So let's say your third source, then,

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is a blog entry by a respected journalist.

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The feature editor of Time magazine,

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for example,

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writes a piece about how celebrities are hypocrites

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and they say they're trying to save the world

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via the environment

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and then they take their private jet to get there.

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Tons of examples there.

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So then you read all these things through and you're like,

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"Okay, piece here, piece here.

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This is what the celebrities say, this is what this person says."

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You have to acknowledge all their biases

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and then you're gonna say,

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"What do I think?"

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And you can think either way.

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There is no -- This is an argument; it's an opinion.

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You have an opinion. You can say,

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"Yes, celebrities are hypocrites.

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They're not doing good for the world."

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Or you can say,

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"No, man, like have you seen?

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They do so much good for the world.

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Celebrities do use their power for good."

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Number one thing - just pick a side.

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If you're wishy-washy about it,

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it's not good.

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Your teacher isn't trying to see if you can

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get all of the nuances of the...

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They're trying to see if you can write an argument paper.

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So pick an argument and stick with it.

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So then what you're gonna do

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is use all three of these sources.

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The ones that you agree with --

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Let's say I've decided that celebrities are hypocrites.

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That blog entry that says that,

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I'm gonna use that as my support

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and I'm gonna say,

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"As this respected journalist says,

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X, Y, and Z. Celebrities are hypocrites.

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They take their private jets.

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Here's an example they give."

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But then I'm gonna use the other sources

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as counterexamples.

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So I'm gonna say,

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"Yes, as the author of this New York Times article says,

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Brad and Angelina have given X amount of money

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and they have flown to Africa

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and all over the world and adopted children.

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But that's an edge case.

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That's one example.

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That journalist only talked about Angelina and Brad.

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My source number three gave 15 examples of the opposite."

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So basically what you're gonna then do

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is use your sources,

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whether you agree with them or not,

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to support your own argument.

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And then we get into the whole

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always acknowledge the counterargument,

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five paragraph essay and all that.

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That's a different course.

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But that's how you're gonna use

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your Internet sources

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to make your argument.

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You're gonna find your sources,

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evaluate them, read them,

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decide if you agree or disagree,

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and then use them as support.

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[ pen writing ]

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How can you use Internet research to make a good argument?

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How important are sources?

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Am I allowed to be subjective?

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I have no idea what you want me to say here. [ chuckles ]

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