Encouraging Critical Thinking Online

Unit 1

Checking Facts and

Gathering Opinions

What was William Shakespeare’s date of birth?

• Find three websites that provide an answer

• Fill in the boxes on the worksheet for each of them

• Comment on any notable features of the sites or answers you discover

What was William Shakespeare’s date of birth?

• Some sources say 23 April 1564: – The Shakespeare Country website– Infoplease’s ‘Today’s birthday’ feature

Shakespeare Country website

http://www.shakespeare-country.com/william_shakespeare.htm Retrieved 20 June 2008

Shakespeare Country website

http://www.shakespeare-country.com/william_shakespeare.htm Retrieved 20 June 2008

What was William Shakespeare’s date of birth?

• In fact, we don’t really know the precise date– He was baptised on 26 April 1564– At the time, babies were usually baptised

within a few days of birth– 23 April is Shakespeare’s death date, and

has also become the traditional date to commemorate his birth

What was William Shakespeare’s date of birth?

• However, some scholars give reasons to doubt this– Shakespeare Online’s biography

section suggests that if Shakespeare had been born on 23 April, the most probable date for his baptism would be 25 April, as this was a feast day

Shakespeare Online biography page

http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/ Retrieved 20 June 2008

Summary - key things to note

• The straightforward answer to a question is not always the most precise

• As information is transmitted, important qualifications are sometimes lost

Why might we find conflicting answers to a question?

• There may be real uncertainty about the answer

• Authorities may disagree

• There may be multiple ways of interpreting a question

Why might we find conflicting answers to a question?

• Some sources may be more up to date than others

• Answers may vary in precision

• Some sources may simply be wrong

Questions to ask when assessing sources

• Who is the author?– An individual or an institution?– What are the author’s credentials?

• Is this a scholarly resource, or a more informal one?

• How up to date is this source?

Questions to ask when assessing sources

• Are there reasons to doubt the reliability of this source?– Does it include information I know to

be false?– Does it contradict itself or use poor

reasoning?– Is it biased towards a particular view?

Questions to ask when assessing sources

• Is the information provided confirmed by other sources?– Are references provided?– Do other websites agree? (A major

advantage of the Web is that many sources can be compared quickly and easily.)

Remember the three Ws

• WHO wrote this site? – Is the author a trustworthy source?

• WHEN was it written? – Is it up to date?

• WHY was it written?– Does the author have an axe to grind?

This slideshow is part of

Encouraging Critical Thinking Online,a set of free teaching resources

designed to develop students’ analytic abilities,

using the Web as source material.

For the full set, please visit Intute Training:

http://www.intute.ac.uk/training/