The Science Of Scientific Writing    Set 6     Set 6-Assessing • Second page • Third page • Fourth page • Example • Exercise 1 • Exercise 2 • Exercise 3 • Exercise 4 • Exercise 5 • Exercise 6 • Final Page Set 6.

Course Home

OVERVIEW: The way to well-written science

How to do the Course

PART I: Paragraphs and Sentences...

SET 1: The Parts of Arguments

SET 2: Indicator Words

SET 3: Refining Claims

SET 4: Locating Arguments in Prose

SET 5: Rationale's Essay Planner

SET 6: Assessing

SET 7 : More on Assessing

In the Set 6 quiz you made some assessments about the degree of support that a basis gives a claim.  Now let's show your basis box assessments on a Rationale Reasoning map.

1. Drag this map onto your workspace and evaluate just the basis box (leave the reason and position as they are for now).

Drag this image onto the workspace to proceed.  You must be using the inbuilt browser in Rationale 1.3 or later.

Hints

• Read down the map to understand the argument, then evaluate only the basis box
• Ask yourself: how reliable is this source of information? And what support does this basis provide for the claim above it?
• We're not asking whether Grandpa did say it - we're asking whether his saying it is sufficient evidence for us to believe it
• Don't be too gullible - Grandpa's recalling something that happened nearly 80 years ago when he was a boy
• Don't be excessively skeptical  - we shouldn't assume Grandpa's feeble-minded or a liar without evidence for that
• Select the basis box, go to the 'Evaluate' section of the ribbon and click the box that reflects your assessment
• Note: if icons and coloring don't appear on your map, go to the 'View' ribbon and check the 'shading' and 'markers' boxes.

2. Check your work against the model.

Content of this page drawn in whole or part from the Austhink Rationale Exercises with permission from Austhink.