Page 120 - Smart Thinking: Skills for Critical Understanding and Writing, 2nd Ed

RESEARCH, REASONING, AND ANALYSIS 10 7
colleagues; each paper that is presented is usually no more than an hour long,
often shorter. Conferences tend to be organised around a topic, or defined
subject. As a result, conference proceedings will tend to contain large
numbers of highly specific papers that present detailed information on very
tightly defined topics; the information is usually very recent.
• Journals are, in many cases, designed solely or predominantly for an academic
audience and the papers in them are refereed, that is, checked for quality by
experts. Hundreds of journals are published; like conferences, they are tightly
themed. Media International Australia is a premier journal, usually focusing
on Australian issues concerning the media: print and electronic. Articles tend
to be longer, providing academics with greater scope to explain and explore
their topic; but they also serve as part of an in-depth long-term conversation
among scholars and experts in various intellectual disciplines.
• Popular magazines are intended to be read by people without much knowledge
in a particular subject, but an interest. They are, predominantly, also governed
by the need to attract and retain readership. The information is heavily
processed to make it understandable: simplicity, rather than complexity, is the
aim; brevity ensures continued attention; examples and evidence are often
sacrificed for the sake of a strong theme; research is limited.

What creates these different categories, then, is a mix of the mode of prod-
uction, the intended audience and the manner of publication. We cannot, for
example, make the above three distinctions without relying on the others. Journals
appear as a distinct category precisely because there are other forms of publishing
that are categorised differently. It is the relationship that matters. For analytical
purposes, these clues provide only marginal assistance in making sense of the
information, rich and complex, which we find in these sources. All they do is guide
us, to some extent, as to the reliability of that information and perhaps the
directness of the source (see 'Direct and indirect sources' later in this chapter).
Thus, when we consider a key issue in reasoning—are our premises well founded?
(chapter 5)—we can see that this foundation is provided, very often, by the source
of the information. Thus, deciding what exactly to find and how to find it may not
be helped by these categories, but they are important in finalising the strength and
quality of argument. What we need at this stage are some other ways of thinking
about how to find and use information.

Exercise 8.1

Write down all the sources that you can think of, in no particular order; perhaps
start by listing the ones that you use most frequently. Then review the list and see
if there are any you have missed. Remember, we are not talking here about
specific titles, but types of sources. Thus, do not write 'The Australian', write
'newspapers'. On the other hand, do not be too general: there is no point in
writing 'books'; you need to ask what kind.