find a claim from google or newspaper or digital journal. for example is diet soda cause cancer?
So the purpose of this paper is not to summarize the article or summarize the claim, but to critique it. You are being a critical critique or evaluator of who is making the claim and the quality of the evidence to support the claim. the first step is to pick your topic and find either an advertisement, newspaper article, or a documentary that’s making a claim and that is going to be your topic. first, there are three paragraphs basically that you’re going to be writing about in your critique your evaluation of this claim that you’ve chosen.
The first thing is you’re going to evaluate the source, who is making the claim( who is the author, who is making this claim, and why or why not are edible. Why, or why not, are they unbiased why or why not, should you believe them.)(are they nutrition or registered dietitian? there is a big difference between someone who calls themselves a nutritionist versus someone who is a registered dietitian.) another thing you want to always look for is, is there any conflict of interest, this is really important, what does that mean it means are they trying to sell you something. You also when evaluating your source will look at where the claim is published. ( if it is from peer reviewed professional scientific journal it would be a very credible source)
In the second paragraph, you are going to evaluate the research behind the claim. (testimonials, anecdotal, or before/after pictures for example) on the other hand, you’re going to be looking to see if there was good quality research cited in the claim or not. are they: 1-Epidemiological / Observational Studies or 2- Intervention / Experimental Studies ? ( how many subjects they used? was it just based on a sample size of five people or did they do a study with thousands of people? And how long and who were the subject of the study?)
In the last paragraph you’re going to do some actual search in the library that means going into the library databases and finding 2 peer-reviewed Research articles on your subject and that’s going to help you make the final evaluation about is the claim that you found on Google:
•How many studies show a positive vs. negative or “null” effect?
•Any warning about adverse side effects/risks? For example, if there are any negative effects or risks of taking that product?!
•Is the effective “dose” the same as what’s commonly consumed in a food or supplement? Something else to consider is the dose that was used in research studies, the same as what’s consumed in food and supplements?
Any acknowledgment of other factors that have a more significant impact on the outcome than the one being studied?
does the author put things in perspective and give both sides that are being responsible
