[MUSIC] In academic contexts, any claim that's made must have sound evidence to support it. Even outside academic context, the consequences of accepting faulty evidence can be as momentous as an act of war or as minor as a disagreement with a friend. For example, in the Iraq war, faulty evidence about weapons of mass destruction was used to justify the US invasion. Faulty thinking such as this could also occur in our regular, daily lives. For instance, if you're working in the library and your pen goes missing, you might be tempted to accuse the person sitting next to you of taking it. However, the pen may have simply rolled onto the floor. Accusing that person of theft would be operating on faulty evidence. If you'd analyzed the claim that the person sitting next to you had stolen the pen and tried to justify it, you would have seen that there was a lack of evidence. Whether the situation is major or minor in academic context, it is crucial to understand the difference between a claim and evidence. As well as to be able to identify strong and weak evidence. In this lesson, we're going to define claims and evidence. Look of why it's important to recognize the difference. And then look at how to assist the suitability of evidence. Firstly, it's necessary to define claims and evidence in academic context. This is fundamental in understanding how arguments are formed and what constitutes a good or bad argument. According to Inch & Warnick claim is an expressed opinion or a conclusion that the arguer wants accepted. In academic context, the claim needs to be arguable. This means that a personal opinion for example, would not be suitable as an academic claim. Neither would something that's generally considered true or is only descriptive. For a claim to be accepted, it needs to be supported by evidence. Evidence can be defined as, facts or conditions objectively observable, beliefs or premises generally accepted as true by the audience, or conclusions previously established. It's important to understand the difference between claims and evidence for two reasons. Firstly, evidence is necessary for a strong argument. We found evidence that an argument can be easily dismissed. All arguments will involve a claim, which is then supported by evidence. The second reason it's important to understand the difference between evidence and claims is because evidence can be challenged. If the validity of the evidence is in doubt, then it may be considered a claim rather than accepted evidence. The evidence then needs to be justified or different sources of evidence need to be drawn upon. Okay, so we've looked at how important it is to assess whether what's being communicated is evidence or a claim. Now, we'll look at some criteria for assessing evidence by assessing its context. The criteria we'll be using are the criteria of origin, mode, purpose and source. Let's have a look at these more closely. Origin is where the evidence comes from. This could be from personal experience or the experience of others. In an academic context, generally we draw upon the experience of others, though this varies within the context of your disciple and the type of task. Mode includes print media, electronic media, or verbal communication. Examples include newspapers, academic journals, blogs, conversations and countless more. In academic arguments, peer review journals are the most trusted source of evidence, as research is scrutinized by experts in the field before it's published. Purpose can be seen as either academic or non-academic. For example in print media, a text book or a general article can be considered academic, while newspapers and magazines can be considered non-academic. Finally sources can be primary, secondary or tertiary. Primary sources from history include letters or diaries while in the sciences, lab notes are considered primary sources. Secondary sources are comments on the primary source such as reviews, reports and journal articles. Textbooks are an example of tertiary sources. While a relative weight of sources might vary between disciplines, primary and secondary sources are generally considered more respected than others. We covered criteria for assessing the reliability of sources and evidence in more depth in our Information and Digital Literacy for Academic Success course. The main thing we'd like you to take away from this lecture is simply the importance of evidence in academic contexts. While in your personal life, you may be able to make claims without evidence, it is vital at university to support claims with solid evidence. [MUSIC] [MUSIC]
