Weasel words: Using QR to teach precision in argumentation

1. Weasel words: Using QR to teach precision in argumentation With support from the US Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education, the National Science Foundation, and the WM Keck Foundation.

3. What do the Numbers Show?

4. Examples from Student Writing

5. Examples from Student Writing “The downtown areas of large cities are often home to copious franchises.” “Consumption of green products that claim to be more environmentally benign has steadily increased in recent years.”

6. Examples from Student Writing “Nonparental child-care is on the rise as more and more mothers choose to work….” “Americans have not been sacrificing more than the few casualties of our military and the monetary price that war costs.”

7. Examples from Student Writing Developing a new drug “takes an average of 8 years for testing and costs $802 million for research.” “As of the end of 2005, the three major airline alliances combined to fly 60.8% of all passengers.” “Over five decades …, there have been 12 parliamentary elections….Turnout is often greater than 60%.”

8. Compared to What?

10. “The ABC News Law & Justice Unit has calculated that for $67 million Pearson could buy 84,115 new pairs of pants at the $800 value he placed on the missing trousers in court documents. If you stacked those pants up, they would be taller than eight Mount Everests. If you laid them side by side, they would stretch for 48 miles.”

11. “The Senate on Thursday narrowly approved a sweeping five-year plan to trim a variety of federal benefit programs and to allow drilling for oil and natural gas in a wilderness area of Alaska…. the most ambitious effort to curb federal spending in eight years ….. It will… reduce the deficit and save roughly $35-billion over the next five years ” New York Times, 11/4/05

12. $35-billion over five years is: • 0.3 percent of federal spending

13. $35-billion over five years is: • 0.3 percent of federal spending • 0.06 percent of gross domestic product

14. $35-billion over five years is: • 0.3 percent of federal spending • 0.06 percent of gross domestic product • $27 per person per year in the context of the federal government's current spending of $9,000 per person per year

15. $35-billion over five years is: • 0.3 percent of federal spending • 0.06 percent of gross domestic product • $27 per person per year in the context of the federal government's current spending of $9,000 per person per year • 3 percent of deficit reductions of 1990 and 1993

16. Cohen, The Triumph of Numbers

17. Cohen, The Triumph of Numbers

18. Cohen, The Triumph of Numbers

19. The headline: Paragraph 12(!): “Those taking the drug had more than twice the risk of death, heart attacks, and strokes.” Absent: The size of the risk.

20. How representative is that?

22. How was the Variable Operationalized?

24. Who is in the Measurement Sample?

27. Controlling for What?

28. Controlling for What? Fact: Those who work with computers earn 15-20% more than others.

29. Controlling for What? Other interesting returns: Calculator = 12.8% Telephone = 11.4% Pencil/Pen = 11.2% Work while sitting = 10.1%

30. Desirable Side Effects from Teaching QR Richard Light’s Features of “Faculty Who Make a Difference”: • Teaching Precision in Use of Language

31. Desirable Side Effects from Teaching QR Richard Light’s Features of “Faculty Who Make a Difference”: • Teaching Precision in Use of Language • Teaching the Use of Evidence

32. Desirable Side Effects from Teaching QR Vehicle for approaching sensitive student interactions

33. Suggestions • Explicitly call attention to the use of numerical evidence in assignment handouts

34. Suggestions • Explicitly call attention to the use of numerical evidence in assignment handouts • Where appropriate, solicit re-writes

35. Suggestions • Explicitly call attention to the use of numerical evidence in assignment handouts • Where appropriate, solicit re-writes • Teach to the assignment

36. Suggestions • Explicitly call attention to the use of numerical evidence in assignment handouts • Where appropriate, solicit re-writes • Teach to the assignment • Get help from reference librarians

37. How QuIRK Intends to Support Curricular Revision

38. How QuIRK Intends to Support Curricular Revision What do the numbers show?

39. How QuIRK Intends to Support Curricular Revision What do the numbers show?

40. How QuIRK Intends to Support Curricular Revision How representative is that? (Are there meaningful subgroups?)

41. How QuIRK Intends to Support Curricular Revision How representative is that? (Are there meaningful subgroups?) New course creation = $3600 Course revision = $1200

42. How QuIRK Intends to Support Curricular Revision Compared to what? Course creation grant =

43. How QuIRK Intends to Support Curricular Revision Compared to what? Course creation grant =

44. How QuIRK Intends to Support Curricular Revision Compared to what? Course revision grant =

45. How QuIRK Intends to Support Curricular Revision Compared to what? Course revision grant =

46. How QuIRK Intends to Support Curricular Revision How is the variable operationalized?

47. How QuIRK Intends to Support Curricular Revision How is the variable operationalized?

48. How QuIRK Intends to Support Curricular Revision How is the variable operationalized?

49. How QuIRK Intends to Support Curricular Revision How is the variable operationalized?

50. How QuIRK Intends to Support Curricular Revision How is the variable operationalized?