As important as the source of your information is who is saying it. Experts are those who are believed to have extensive knowledge on a given subject. Even so, experts are known to make mistakes, and you should never accept what they say at face value without documented evidence. While the credentials of experts are important, they are no shortcut for finding answers to what you are researching. They should be evaluated just as you would any other source.For example, in April 2004 the U.S. State Department announced to the news media that a new federal report had shown that terrorism activities in the United States had dramatically decreased since the Bush administration had launched its global war on terror. In June of that year, Secretary of State Colin Powell learned that mistakes were made in the reporting of such information—that terrorism activities had actually increased—and he apologized to the country for the error.Another example is the Enron scandal. Prior to the scandal, if people could choose between quoting former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay or a lower-level employee, they would want to hear from Lay, since he seemed more qualified to talk about the company earnings and the company's overall success. Few realized that when Lay claimed that Enron's profits were up dramatically, and that the future was rosy that the opposite was true.Don't take a person's word at face value. Verify the facts. Examine other sources relevant to what was said to see how accurate or how true the statement really is. If you can't verify what's been said, then don't use it.
|
Email
Print
Save
Citation
Record URL
