Finding Evidence
Finding good evidence is nothing easy. Your rhetorical situation determines what kinds of evidence are appropriate for your circumstances. For example, certain types of evidence are preferred over others depending on your purpose for writing. In order to find the right evidence, you have to know how to look for it. There are two approaches to collecting evidence to support an argument. One is by using readily available information. This could mean referring to library resources, such as printed material and online databases, or using online resources such as search engines. However, the latter should be taken with a grain of salt because it can difficult to distinguish between credible and non-credible sources. The other approach is to create your own evidence. Going out there and personally performing experiments, conducting interviews, or collecting data from surveys requires a lot of planning to make sure it performs the intended task.
The reading was informative as it showed just how in-depth the research process can be. Although not all of it is new information to me since most of us have done research papers before. I’ve previously used Google Scholar for finding credible sources in high school. For this next paper, I might look into using some of the library databases for information.
Under My Thumb
Chelsea Booth wrote about women in the music industry, rather the lack of, as well as her own experiences as a woman in the music industry. Women have been disproportionally represented in music compared to men. She mentions that as a Major in Management of Musical Enterprises, she has spent countless hours learning about men in the music industry in her classes. However, women don’t get their spotlight for various excuses that she rejects. Some excuses include “there isn’t enough time,” or “historically women weren’t allowed to be musicians so there are less female musicians to talk about.” Booth frequently attends concerts and festivals because they make her feel free, but has found that they are usually unsafe for women. She has personally experienced sexual assault at concerts and it has made her question the place of women in music.
This piece was well-written because not only does it raise awareness of an issue in society but she includes a lot of her own findings that contradict the norm. For example, she gives examples of reasons given as to why women in music aren’t represented as much as men, she rejects them because she found evidence to prove otherwise.