These lessons are designed to support the research you are asked to do in your various classes. Understanding the key concepts in these lessons will enhance your learning, as well as saving you time. Each one will take you about 20 minutes, perhaps a little longer if English is not your first language.

Evidence

This lesson was created by Barbara Kobritz, Instructional Services Librarian at TC3. Comments may be emailed to kobritb@tc3.edu

In this lesson you will learn to:

1. Distinguish between anecdotal and research evidence.
2. Recognize the structure of research evidence.

Types of Evidence

When you are given assignments for papers and projects in your classes you will typically be asked either to inform your audience of the facts on your topic, or persuade your audience to a particular point of view. Either way, you will be making claims and you will need to back them up with evidence.

Anecdotal & Research Evidence

You will rarely hear researchers talk about proof. It’s very difficult to prove, for example, that one thing causes another. Instead we look for relationships between variables, i.e. evidence.

This lesson is about two types of evidence, anecdotal evidence and research evidence. As you will see, for formal presentations one is preferred over the other.

Anecdotal Evidence

An anecdote is a story about an incident that happened in one situation. Anecdotal stories often appear in newspapers and newscasts because that is the news reporters’ job – to give us the story about an event that just happened. Keep in mind that events are news precisely because they’re unusual.

EXAMPLE:
Over the last couple of years there have been many stories in the press about shark attacks. But shark attacks have not increased; only the coverage has increased. These are anecdotes – isolated incidents. The likelihood of being attacked by a shark is very small, but people love to read these sensational stories and the press loves to cover them.

We also get anecdotal evidence from each other:

EXAMPLE:
A classmate tells you that she ate at a local restaurant and got sick afterwards. This may make you leery of eating at that etablishment, even though no one else who ate there that night got sick and it’s entirely possible that your friend just caught a virus somewhere.

EXAMPLE:
A friend tells you that he doesn’t believe that smoking is as dangerous as they say because his great-uncle Harry smoked two packs a day and lived to 97. That’s anecdotal evidence – one isolated case. It’s true that smoking doesn’t kill every smoker but, statistically, the odds are against you if you smoke.

The Problem with Anecdotal Evidence

Anecdotal evidence causes us trouble when we generalize from one specific situation to all situations. If one person smokes and it doesn’t kill them, that doesn’t mean it’s safe for everyone.

EXAMPLE:
Most people feel much more anxiety flying than they do driving, even though - mile for mile - driving is far more dangerous. Auto accidents around the country are so common that they aren’t considered newsworthy. Plane crashes are unusual. They receive a lot of attention. Seeing the coverage we tend to generalize from specific flying situations – the crashes – to all flying situations. Flying is not risk-free, but our fear of it is out of proportion to the real risk.

For college-level writing, you are expected to use research-based evidence. You will usually find it in the form of articles published in scholarly journals, also referred to as academic journals or research journals.

Examples of scholarly journal titles:
Journal of Adolescent Research
Child Development
Journal of Transcultural Nursing
Early Childhood Education Journal
BioScience

You will also find research-based evidence reported in books and on web sites.

The Structure of Research

Regardless of what form (journal, book or web site) you find research in, it will be reported in a recognizable and consistent structure.

The rest of this lesson is about how to recognize research. We are going to look at a sample article to see how the components of a published research report work together.

Here is the citation for our sample article:

Authors: Amina Memon, Lorraine Hope, and Ray Bull.
Title: Exposure Duration: Effects on Eyewitness Accuracy and Confidence
Journal: British Journal of Psychology
Volume and Issue: 94.3
Date: (2003):
Pages: 339-54.

Structure of a Research Article

We’re going to look at seven different parts of a research article:

1. References
2. Problem Statement
3. Methodology
4. Data or Results
5. Conclusion or Discussion
6. Suggestions for further research
7. Abstract

1. References

Although the references come at the end of the article, they come at the beginning of the process. Researchers keep careful track of what is being published in their field, both to keep up on what’s being done, and to help them formulate a research question that hasn’t been done. Typically at the end of the article you’ll see a long list of other publications they have cited. Our sample article has a total of 60 references.

2. Problem Statement

You won’t always see a section clearly marked problem statement. The authors may start with something called Introduction or Background. But somewhere in there, they will tell you what they hoped to learn by doing this research. That’s the problem statement. Phrases like, The current study sought are a giveaway. In our article the very first sentence tells us why they did this study:

"The current study sought to examine the relationship between duration of exposure to a face in an eyewitness setting, accuracy of identification and subjective assessments of confidence in the identification decision."

In other words, the researchers wanted to know whether witnesses who see a crime perpetrator for a longer time are more accurate in identifying the criminal later. AND, they wanted to know whether the longer exposure makes the witness feel more confident about the identification. (If witnesses feel more confident but aren’t actually more accurate…that would be a good thing to know, right?)

3. Methodology

A research piece will always specify the methodology, how the research was done.

EXAMPLES:
A survey given to 500 recent immigrants
An observation of 152 kindergarten children
A focus group conducted of 9 middle-aged college students

In our example the methodology section is clearly marked: Method. This study had a very lengthy and complex methodology that involved exposing people to staged crimes, controlling the amount of time the subject saw the perp's face, followed by phony line-ups - all repeated for two different age groups.

4. Data or Results

There may be two separate sections called Data and Results, or just Results, as in this study. This is a description of the numerical outcome of the study. If the language is too technical for you to understand, don’t worry about it. Experts in the field examined the data before the study was published.

5. Conclusions or Discussion

This section tells you what the researchers think is true as a result of the data they found. This section should be easier to understand than the data itself. For purposes of gathering evidence for a college-level paper - this is what you’re looking for. Our researchers found that, yes, witnesses who got a good look were more accurate at identifying criminals. Unfortunately, the longer look made them more confident, whether they were right or wrong. Interesting.

6. Suggestions for further research

The researchers started by reviewing everything that had been written in this field of research. They formulated a question. They carried out their research and reported it. In the final section, they make suggestions for further research. This is how a community of scholars develops knowledge over time. In our study, there isn’t a clearly marked section for suggestions. Throughout the Discussion section the authors mention facets of the research that need further exploration. Some research articles have suggestions for further research and some don’t.

7. Abstract

Although it’s the first thing you see, the Abstract is the last piece written, a summary of all the rest. Usually abstracts tell you the whole story. Try reading through this abstract and see if you can describe the problem, the methodology, the results and the discussion for our sample study.

"The current study examined the relationship between the length of exposure to a face in an eyewitness setting and identification accuracy and confidence. A sample of 164 young (ages 17-25) and older (ages 59-81) adults viewed a simulated crime in which they saw the culprit's face for a short (12 seconds) or long (45 seconds) duration. They were then tested with a target absent (a line-up not containing the culprit) or target present line-up. Identification accuracy rates for both young and older participants were significantly higher under the long exposure condition. In the short exposure condition, witnesses who had made a correct identification of the target were more confident than incorrect witnesses. In the long exposure condition the confidence ratings of accurate and inaccurate witnesses did not differ. Discussion focuses on the extent to which extended exposure may inflate confidence judgments and variables that may moderate the relationship between exposure duration and face recognition accuracy."

The problem statement, the methodology, the results and the issues up for discussion are all outlined succinctly in that abstract.

Using Research Articles Effectively

Communities of scholars in various disciplines carry on conversations, by means of their published research, that can go on for years or even decades. You can’t expect to understand the conversation by looking at a couple of articles you pull out at random. To get a good understanding of the research in your topic dig up as many articles as you can - 30, 40, 50, more - and read the abstracts. You will get a much better overview of the scholarly discussion than you could get by reading even one article from start to finish, in less time.

Thinking about Disciplines

Research is different in different disciplines. So far we have been talking about research in the social sciences, because much of the informative and persuasive writing you do in college will relate to these disciplines.

But think about an article in a history journal. How do you think it would differ from our example about the accuracy of eyewitnesses?

What about in a physics journal? How would the experimental design be different from a social science study like the sample article we’ve been exploring?

What’s Your Discipline?

By deciding to attend college and choosing a major you have started on the path to joining one of the many communities of scholars. You now have a discipline, whether it be education, environmental studies communication or any other program of study.

Take advantage of the research and writing opportunities in your basic classes, such as English 101, to start exploring the scholarly literature in your discipline. Find out what your colleagues have been up to and prepare yourself to join the conversation.

Summary

• When you are writing you must support your claims with good evidence.
• Avoid anecdotal evidence – don’t generalize on the basis of one story or event.
• Learn to recognize solid research evidence published in scholarly journals, books and web sites.
• Use writing and research opportunities to explore the academic literature in your discipline (criminal justice, nursing, education…). Start recognizing how research is done in your field.
• If you have any questions or would like some help finding good sources for your topic, talk with a librarian. Here’s how you can find us:

Here's where to find us:

1. Come see us at the library: Current hours are posted on the Library Gateway.
2. By Phone: 607.844.8222, Extension 4363
3. By Email: library@tc3.edu
4. On the Web: www.tc3.edu/library. On every page on our site, there's a link to Ask-A-Librarian. Post your question. We'll respond within one business day.

Copyright 2005 Tompkins Cortland Community College

Last update: Monday, February 11, 2008