Lundsford Chapter 16

The message behind this chapter is that evidence should not be accepted just because it's evidence. Reliability and breadth in evidence is important for a written piece to be coherent and persuasive. The chapter shows several examples of different ways to find good evidence, some of which seemed to be for academia and others more tailored for a magazine or newspaper article.

The section on experiments definitely influenced me the most in terms of persuasion. An experiment conducted by a reporter involved a hacker and some banks. The hacker demonstrated how easy it was to steal 100,000$ from a "Mr. Rich" by using only a laptop, a telephone booth, and dumpster diving twice. The report was taken through the entire process step-by-step. The experiment showed clearly, plainly for all to see that it was doable. Other types of first-hand evidence, to me, lacked that kind of reliability. The experiment showed that the hack was do-able and did not take much effort. Let's examine some other ways we could have tried to prove that statement using the other kinds of evidence in the chapter. Some are effective, some are not.

Observations :
Situation 1: A reporter sees the hacker from afar and follows. He does not know what happens, but that he dumpster dived behind two banks. Dumpster diving is not hard, but this is not evidence enough of anything.

Situation 2: A reporter overhears the call from outside the booth. Nothing is out of the ordinary, except the probably large dollar amount Jesse says out loud on his side of the conversation. Not evidence of much except someone has that much money.

Interviews:
The hacker is interviewed. He describes his process. It is good evidence because it demonstrates what he did and how he did it, especially how easy it was.

Surveys:
A large sample of hackers are questioned : Could you hack into a bank and move funds? If yes, have you done it before? A majority of yes could show that hackers can do it, but not that it is easy. Adding a question evaluating ease could be biased as people who call themselves hackers can be of various skills. Ease is relative.

Personal Experience:
Doing the procedure yourself and reporting it is another great way to prove your point (Although in this situation it would be highly illegal). You feel exactly how it is and say for yourself how easy or not it is. Credibility prior to publishing the piece would be essential, however.

I think experimenting is great, because it combines the best of personal experience with observation. It results in an in-depth experience that makes you understand everything about how something works.