SBQ Practice: Usefulness Skills
Types of usefulness questions include:
- How useful is this…..?
- What is the source’s usefulness…?
The way we answer ‘usefulness questions’ is very similar to the way we answer ‘reliability questions’. Why is this so? This because of 1 basic principle:
The degree of the usefulness of the source depends on the degree on the reliability of the source; the more reliable the source, the more useful the source.
Thus the steps to answer a usefulness question are:
- Evaluate the content of the source: What the source says?
- Then check the reliability of the source:
- Cross-reference test
- 1 cross-reference to support –> therefore Reliable –> therefore Useful
- 1 cross-reference to contradict 00> therefore unreliable –> therefore not useful
- Critical analysis of provenance looking at its purpose test:
- Check the purpose (A.K.D.)
- Then look at its hidden agenda: Does it have one? Is it biased, one-sided?
- Yes, it is biased à Hidden agenda à Unreliable à Not useful and vice-versa
A typical format:
Source A is useful in telling me…………………………………………This is seen……………………………….This implies………………………………Furthermore source B supports it….. This is seen………. implying………. making it reliable and thus useful.
However it may not be as useful as source C contradicts it. This is seen in C………………………….. implying…………..making A less reliable and thus not useful.
Looking at its purpose, it is to let ………………know that………………….. This is to convince the audience so that they will……………. Thus it has an incentive to be biased as …………………….. making it not so reliable and thus less useful.
Some other points:
- Most importantly, we must state the base stand of the source first!!!
- All sources are not 100% useful and vice-versa.
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