IRMA-International.org: Creator of Knowledge
Information Resources Management Association
Advancing the Concepts & Practices of Information Resources Management in Modern Organizations

Understanding and Reasoning with Text

Understanding and Reasoning with Text
View Sample PDF
Author(s): M. Anne Britt (Northern Illinois University, USA), Katja Wiemer (Northern Illinois University, USA), Keith K. Millis (Northern Illinois University, USA), Joseph P. Magliano (Northern Illinois University, USA), Patty Wallace (Northern Illinois University, USA)and Peter Hastings (DePaul University, USA)
Copyright: 2012
Pages: 22
Source title: Cross-Disciplinary Advances in Applied Natural Language Processing: Issues and Approaches
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Chutima Boonthum-Denecke (Hampton University, USA), Philip M. McCarthy (The University of Memphis, USA)and Travis Lamkin (University of Memphis, USA)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-447-5.ch010

Purchase

View Understanding and Reasoning with Text on the publisher's website for pricing and purchasing information.

Abstract

Consider the assignment that teachers have been giving their students for years: “Write an expository essay on a scientific topic. Example topics may include global warming, human memory, or the spread of infectious diseases. You must have at least three references.” The instructor makes it clear that the paper should have a thesis or claim that is supported by evidence. Claims might be that global warming will be disastrous only for some nations, why it is futile to teach mnemonics to young children, or that cell phone use causes cancer. From the perspective of the student (and cognitive psychologists), this assignment is challenging at any grade. The challenge is that the assignment entails a number of complicated and interconnected tasks. For example, reading a research paper requires the reader to make inferences that span sentences and paragraphs (in addition to a whole host of other processes), and to understand the logical and rhetorical structure of the text as a whole. If the paper describes an experiment, the student must additionally understand how to determine whether the data support the conclusion (i.e., the scientific method). In most cases, the student must also integrate the content of several papers (sources) into a coherent structure. This process involves evaluating the credibility of the sources, selecting relevant pieces of information from each, and putting them into a coherent argument structure. No wonder such assignments are met with groans.

Related Content

Reinaldo Padilha França, Ana Carolina Borges Monteiro, Rangel Arthur, Yuzo Iano. © 2021. 21 pages.
Abdul Kader Saiod, Darelle van Greunen. © 2021. 28 pages.
Aswini R., Padmapriya N.. © 2021. 22 pages.
Zubeida Khan, C. Maria Keet. © 2021. 21 pages.
Neha Gupta, Rashmi Agrawal. © 2021. 20 pages.
Kamalendu Pal. © 2021. 14 pages.
Joy Nkechinyere Olawuyi, Bernard Ijesunor Akhigbe, Babajide Samuel Afolabi, Attoh Okine. © 2021. 19 pages.
Body Bottom