ABSTRACT
As you have learned, professional media writers are persistent researchers and they take little of what they see, hear, or read for granted. They raise critical questions about all received data and even evaluate their own determinations. Novices, too, must be critical judges of received data. To help you improve your evaluation skills, this chapter deals with general materials that media writers customarily have to read: reports, documents, professional journal articles, feature news articles, popular magazine articles, books, newsletters, and other similar materials. Unlike data in such references as encyclopedias, directories, fact books, and almanacs, data in general materials require a great deal more scrutiny. In order to communicate accurate information in your own copy, you must be able to distinguish the genuine from the counterfeit. First ask Critical Self-Inquiry 4: What information fails to stand up to question? Then follow the line of questioning and the clues to answers provided in this chapter.
