Week 4 — Readings & Resources

Your primary reading is Chapter 4 (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer — pick what helps, skip the rest.

How to use this page

This page has 10 items (4 readings and 6 videos). Allow 73–82 minutes for everything. Each group points back to the matching chapter section and class-session segment, so use the full menu when you want more, or take the quick path below.

Every video here has captions: turn them on with the CC button in the player. The chapter covers the same ideas in text.

Pick-one quick path (18–20 min total)

• Orally Citing a Source in a Speech — Janene Davison
• How to Fact-Check History — Retro Report
• Math basics for journalists: Working with averages and percentages — The Journalist's Resource

① Picking the right kind of proof

Chapter 4, Section “Supporting material: pick the right kind of proof for each point” · Session 1, Segment 2, “Three kinds of supporting material” · Remember: an example gives a picture, a statistic gives a number, and testimony gives a witness, so match the proof to the point.

• How to Support Your Speech: Examples, Statistics & Testimony — Dr. Colin Steele — a longer video lesson on brief, extended, and hypothetical examples, on statistics, and on expert and peer testimony (the course calls peer testimony lay testimony); this builds on Week 3's work with the central idea, since every piece of support backs one of its promises. (video, 20 min) (captions: automatic)

② Is this source worth trusting?

Chapter 4, Section “Credible sources: judge a source before you trust it” · Session 1, Segment 3, “Judging a source” · Remember: ask the five questions, then open new tabs and see what independent sources say before you trust a page.

• Evaluating Health Information — MedlinePlus — a government health library's guide to the questions to ask of a website: who runs it, who pays for it, what it is for, where its information comes from, and how current it is; match each one to a question on the credibility checklist, and use it while you complete the Week-4 module overview. (reading, 5–7 min)
• Who Can You Trust? Crash Course Navigating Digital Information #4 — CrashCourse — how to judge whether an online source has real expertise and how to take its point of view into account; listen for the authority and purpose questions. (video, 15 min) (captions: creator)
• How to Fact-Check Online Sources — MediaSmarts — a two-minute set of tips for separating good information from bad, built around checking a claim before you share it. (video, 2 min) (captions: creator)
• How to Fact-Check History — Retro Report — a news organization's fact-checker explains how he verifies information, which claims can be checked, and why some sources are more reliable than others. (video, 7 min) (captions: creator)

③ Reading a number before you say it

Chapter 4, Section “Statistics in words: ask who counted, when, and how many” · Session 2, Segment 4, “Statistics in words” · Remember: an average hides the spread, so ask who counted, when, and how many before you say any number.

• Math basics for journalists: Working with averages and percentages — The Journalist's Resource — a short guide for reporters on the different kinds of average and on percentages, including how one extreme value can pull an average away from the typical case; the course says average, spread, and range, so read the averages section and skim the rest. (reading, 7–9 min)
• Methods 101: Random Sampling — Pew Research Center — a short explainer on how a survey chooses the people it asks and why that choice matters; it answers the who-counted and how-many questions for a poll. (video, 2 min) (captions: creator)

④ Saying where it came from

Chapter 4, Section “The oral citation: say who, what, and when before the evidence” · Session 2, Segment 5, “The oral citation” · Remember: name who, what, and when in the sentence before the evidence, and credit a paraphrase as surely as a quotation.

• Orally Citing a Source in a Speech — Janene Davison — a short primer on working direct quotations and paraphrases into a speech with a spoken credit; check each example for who, what, and when, and notice that one example names its source only after the number, while this course names the source first; its sample figures are classroom examples, not sources to quote. (video, 4 min) (captions: automatic)
• SPJ Code of Ethics — Society of Professional Journalists — a professional body's ethics code for reporters; read the first principle, on seeking truth, with its rules to use original sources, never plagiarize, always attribute, and label illustrations, and stop here before arranging evidence into main points, which next week takes up. (reading, 5–7 min)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

• Sojourner Truth's Most Famous Speech — Library of Congress — the national library's account of the two published versions of Truth's 1851 convention speech and why the earlier report is the more reliable; it shows why a quotation is only as good as its transcript, so quote nothing from either version. (reading, 6–9 min)

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell your instructor and use the reference above in the meantime.

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