You are on page 1of 5

Samuel Shely

F15.UWRT1103 - Caruso-Combined201580
Home My courses Fall 2015 F15.UWRT1103 - Caruso-75800-Combined-201580
Thursday, October 22 Sources Discussion Forum (037) Sources Assignment

Search forums

Sources Discussion Forum (037)


Sources Assignment
Sources Assignment

Sources Assignment
Display replies in nested form

Sources Assignment
by Katherine Morton - Sunday, 25 October 2015, 9:55 PM
Part 1
In my last paper, I did my best to eliminate conformation bias by countering each argument with a source of the opposite
belief. Looking back on it, I see that my paper could have used a few more anti-euthanasia sources to balance it out and
discourage bias but overall I do not feel as if it pushed the reader in any certain direction. Adding a wider range of beliefs will
strengthen the paper and will allow the reader to more accurately pin point their belief on the subject, it will also make the
reader more comfortable in trusting what they have read rather than questioning the purpose for the piece. In a controversial
topic such as euthanasia, eliminating conformation bias is extremely difficult because of the strong emotional connection
associated with it, people tend to get very defensive when a loved one is dying. This allows for conformation bias in your
sources and research, interesting stories and well written articles written by people who have been emotionally affected by
the topic may swing you as an author or the reader one way versus the other. In the first paper I turned in, I feel as if I did
adhere to conformation bias just a little bit by not providing enough information about the cons of euthanasia. It may appear
that I am pro euthanasia or am trying to persuade the reader to be pro euthanasia simply because I did not describe both
sides of the argument in full. For this upcoming project I will try harder to represent each side equally.
Part 2
A reliable source is one that contains many drafts and peer reviews to ensure that it is factual and unbiased. These peer
reviews can come from and editor such as in a newspaper or magazine or from fellow scholars and classmates such as in
scholarly books and articles. A scholarly piece is typically the most reliable because it goes through the most processes and
is reviewed time after time to ensure that it is a reliable resource. However, the drawback of scholarly sources is that they are
a little more difficult to come by and requires the researcher to invest him or herself a little bit deeper into finding the

information they wish to acquire. A website on the other hand, though very easy to access, does not have to be reviewed by
anyone to check for factuality, a person can post anything he or she would like to post on the web making webpages
extremely unreliable to someone trying to collect valuable research.
I believe that most people judge the websites reliability based on its appearance, if the design of the page looks official then
the information must be true. Even though we know this is false, websites are so easy to obtain that most people don't look
much further, perceiving scholarly sources as a source beyond what they are looking for.
Part 3Warren, J. "Euthanasia." (2015). Web. 2015.
Warren describes euthanasia as bargain hunting and states that medical personnel should take in on themselves to
become educated on the topic of death so they can be helpful in advising patients on what will be the right choice in their
specific case. But Warren does not define what justifies euthanasia as being the right choice or what it means for it to be
called for. He also concludes the article by stating that doctors and nurses are prejudice but provides no reasoning for such
statement.
Seely responds back to Warren in another article in which he states that there are too many unknowns for euthanasia to
be considered a bargain [1] but team authors Dasselaar, Boersma, Lange, and Somerville justify the use of euthanasia if it
relieves the patients pain, which is parallel with Warrens bargain hunting idea. [2]
The idea of bargain hunting can be related back to cancer patient Brittany Maynard who opted for euthanasia rather
than the slow and painful death associated with euthanasia.
[1] Seely, Steven. "Euthanasia." (2015). Web. 2015.
[2] Dasselaar, N., F. Boersma, J. Langue, and M. Somerville. "Euthanasia." The Lancet 345.8959 (1995). Print.

Dasselaar, N., F. Boersma, J. Langue, and M. Somerville. "Euthanasia." The Lancet 345.8959 (1995). Print.
The author leaves the reader wondering if there has been any research on the correlation between the number of
patients who use the spiral infusion of analgestics and pain control at home and the number of patients who choose to
participate in euthanasia. He also presents the question of whether or not there is a difference in life expectancy rates
between those with home care vs those under doctor care.
It isn't that the logic doesn't match up between this article and my previous research but the author presents many racy
comments about care treatments of doctors such as the spiral infusion of analegestics as well as their intentions that he
does not back up with any information which makes me doubt the sources accuracy. I feel as if the authors main purpose is
not to add value to the conversation about euthanasia but instead speaks more towards the idea of what treatments are
available to sick patients. The author views the increase in euthanasia as a lack of good treatments, he states that even the
best pain medication disproves the quality of life as it only causes the patient to become more aware of his/her state
depressing them further.

901 words

Rate: Rate...

Reply

Re: Sources Assignment


by Delanie Knight - Monday, 26 October 2015, 9:06 PM
I think you make a very good point in your part 2. For the most part, peer reviewed sources
are most reliable for our sake. But what makes a source with one peer review more reliable
than a source with none? you can not help but to question this. I agree that information from
websites that can be found from a simple Google search is much easier to find than those
that are deemed to be "better" but I also believe that even some of those source can have
good quality information presented. I wrote about most of the same ideas. I like how you
stated the idea that we (people) tend to base a website's reliability on the appearance. "If a
website looks ocial, then it probably is ocial." Much of this has to do with society's
emphasis on appearance as a whole. I am even guilty of this logic.
I find it very interesting that a researcher described euthanasia as bargain hunting. I would
have never thought of it in that aspect. Since I am not very knowledgeable in the health world,
some terms you used are very unclear to me. Maybe for your final paper it would be a good

idea to define some possibly unknown terms and procedures! I think is really cool how you
are already showing connections with your past research to the scholarly research you have
done. It seems like you are on to a great start.
244 words

Rate: Rate...

Show parent | Reply

Re: Sources Assignment


by James Kelly - Monday, 26 October 2015, 9:10 PM

Katherine, I agree with your statement of, Looking back on it, I see that my paper could
have used a few more anti-euthanasia sources to balance it out and discourage bias but
overall I do not feel as if it pushed the reader in any certain direction. Adding a wider
range of beliefs will strengthen the paper and will allow the reader to more accurately pin
point their belief on the subject, it will also make the reader more comfortable in trusting
what they have read rather than questioning the purpose for the piece. It is important to
add a few remarks that challenge your personal argument, so your reader can understand
that there is more than just one, sole solution to a given topic. However, you do not want to
add an overwhelming amount of information that goes against your thesis. By adding a vast
amount of information that goes against your thesis, you unintentionally contradict yourself
within your own paper. In doing so, your audience may misunderstand your original
argument, and may perceive that you are arguing against a topic, when in reality, you are
arguing for a given topic. Thus, it is crucial that you have a balance of information that
goes against, as well as information that promotes your specific topic.
215 words

Rate: Rate...

Show parent | Reply

Re: Sources Assignment


by Samuel Shely - Monday, 26 October 2015, 10:39 PM
Hey Katie, euthanasia is one heated controversial topic, but that probably makes it all the
more interesting. When reading part one, it seems as though you did a great job of
attempting to eliminate confirmation bias by utilizing a roughly even number of sources from
both points of view. Later on in this paragraph you talked about the diculties of minimizing
confirmation because some of your sources were so emotional. With a topic such as yours, I
believe that it is totally necessary to use sources from people that have experienced a loved
one that has gone through this emotional experience. It is important to not only note the
unemotional objective statistics of euthanasia, but also the less quantifiable emotional
experiences.

In part two, you stated how people think that "if the design of the page looks ocial then the
information must be true," referring to webpages. I actually started laughing when I read this
because it is SO true, even for myself. If I come across an aesthetically pleasing, modern,
simple yet sophisticated looking website, I am going to heed more attention to its' information
than a disorganized, hard to read webpage. The less aesthetically pleasing one could have
more accurate information, but my human nature tells me that the one that looks like more
time was spent on creating it, is also the one that is right (*I believe that is a form of cognitive
bias).
238 words

Sum of ratings: -

Show parent | Reply | Export to portfolio

Sources Assignment

Sources Assignment

NAVIGATION

Home
My home
My profile
Current course
F15.UWRT1103 - Caruso-75800-Combined-201580
Participants
Badges
Thursday, October 22
Sources Discussion Forum (037)
Sources Assignment
Kaltura Media Gallery
My courses

ACTIVITIES

Assignments
Forums
Resources
ADMINISTRATION

Forum administration
Subscription disabled
My profile settings

You are logged in as Samuel Shely (Log out)

F15.UWRT1103 - Caruso-75800-Combined-201580

You might also like