Developing the Ability to Analyze Historical and Contemporary Information
- Apply understanding & knowledge of past events to new situations
- Identify
cause and effect relationships
- Practice problem solving through the use of analogies
Synthesizing Information
Synthesis is creating something new from a number of different sources.
Synthesizing information is a process of examining and inferring relationships
among sources and then making those relationships explicit. Synthesis is also a
process of combining information and ideas to create or develop a new idea,
focus, or perspective. An effective way to integrate and synthesize information
is to recognize and use four particular thought patterns. These include:
- Cause-effect - expresses a relationship between two or more actions, events, or
occurrences that are connected in time.
- Comparison-contrast - the comparison pattern is used to emphasize or discuss
similarities between or among ideas, theories, concepts, or events, while the
contrast pattern emphasizes differences.
- Problem-solution - defines a problem and conducts research to test possible
solutions.
- Classification - organize information into broad types or categories.
Using
Analogies
The use of analogies to understand and interpret situations is another method
for analyzing information. Using analogies requires one to identify similar
problems or situations and compare them with the problem at hand. The use of
analogies enables one to learn from the experiences of others. Some guidelines
to follow are:
- How are the situations alike?
- How are they different?
- How well does the analogy apply to your situation?
- What does it suggest
that you do?
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