Kantz

1)   Kantz disagrees with Shirley’s understandings of facts opinions and arguments.  Kantz believes that facts are just claims that a group of people accept to be true. Kantz emphasizes how an opinion goes with the idea of factual research. She explained this by using the example of the battle being told by both sides, the French and the British. When an opinion is being shared it creates different perspectives so that the facts aren’t fully trusted from either side. Kantz says that an argument is needs to be original and not formed from opinions from the text. For example, she states that Shirley needs help being able to create her own arguments rather than agreeing or disagreeing with  the text.

2) 1. Misunderstand sources because students read them as stories

     2.  Students expect sources to tell the truth.

    3. Students don’t understand that facts are a kind of claim I believe Kantz is   correct with the list she has created on why students have a hard time understanding text. At first I was confused on our some sources don’t tell the truth because I assumed a source wouldn’t lie to its audience. Then after I began to read more it became clear that some sources will exaggerate the truth in order to make their meaning more clear. She used the example of Churchill explaining that there were a larger number of troops to emphasize England’s pride for their armies.

2) I always thought that a research paper was just information found through various sources written down in an orderly, cohesive fashion. Once I read the article by Kantz, I now understand that once you do the actual research I should be able to look at my findings in a different perspective given to me. This will allow me to become creative and not just copy and paste the “facts” down onto the paper. I will then be able to reach a new understanding of my research and create interesting new ideas. I may find trouble being able to create new arguments with the research but it is worth a shot.

MM) Kantz analyzes the importance of facts, arguments and opinions. I find it useful to understand her findings and claims because it is important to know what facts actually mean. I never looked at a fact being a claim accepted by a group of people rather than a truth being accepted by all. After reading the article, it is helpful to know that research is allowed to be broadened and put into your own words in offer to create arguments against other research.

p.s I wasn’t here on Friday so I did not have the work sheet to do the library tutorial!