Page 377 - Effective group discussion theory and practice by Adams, Katherine H. Brilhart, John K. Galanes, Gloria J

360 Appendix A

Other Information Sources
Useful information may crop up anywhere, anytime. You may hear something relevant
to your topic or problem while listening to the radio or watching television. You can
sometimes access this information from the radio or TV station’s website via podcast.
Some televised material, such as the program content of C- SPAN, is cataloged and
available for purchase or rent. Lectures or public speeches are another source of infor-
mation. An idea may occur to you when you are not consciously thinking about the
group’s problem— for example, while riding to school, jogging, or talking with friends.
Most of us find it helpful to keep a small notepad or our smartphones with us so that
we can jot down ideas when they occur, lest we forget or distort them. The important
thing is to be alert to unexpected information and record it promptly.

Evaluate the Information and Ideas You Have Collected

You must evaluate your information for accuracy and credibility. Many of your ideas
may collapse in the presence of contradictory information, or some of your information
may be from suspect sources, in direct contradiction to other evidence, or irrelevant.
The group must know to cull the misleading, unsubstantiated, or wrong information so
that your decision or solution will not be faulty.
In Chapter 10, we discussed ways you can evaluate information and reasoning,
including information you get from the World Wide Web. For now, focus on the
following questions:
1. Are the sources believable?
Is the person a recognized expert? Is there anything— vested interest, known
bias— that could have biased his or her opinion?
2. Is a clear distinction made between facts and inferences?
Are opinions stated as though they are facts? Can the facts be verified by
independent credible sources?
3. Are statistical data validly gathered, analyzed, and explained?
Was the sample representative? Were appropriate statistical procedures used to
analyze the data? Are the results appropriately generalized, or overgeneralized?
4. Are conclusions (inferences) supported by good reasoning?
Are there any reasoning errors that call the conclusions into question? Can you
draw different but equally valid conclusions from the same set of evidence?

Organize Your Information and Ideas
The most efficient way to organize the group’s information is to write a tentative out-
line. Ask yourself, “What are the questions that must be answered by our group to
understand the problem or subject fully?” Your answers can serve as tentative main
points in your outline. In addition, your outline helps make the problem- solving pro-
cess, discussed in Chapters 9 and 10, more systematic and less likely to omit some-
thing important.

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