Research Legitimacy

When we’re doing research with sources from the web, qualifying legitimacy is important before any argument or thesis can be made. Here I will give some an example of how a database of material can be used improperly because of improper proofs. However, it turns into a slippery slope when one attempts to determine truths in history because we will need to somehow verify how institution determines a truth – and truth of each other. When there’s a database, it’s supported by institutions, that are supported by others. . . The further down we go, we find institutions organised by political entities, who carry a bias and personal interest. Both of the databases I will provide will neither be polarized “truthful” or «radically false”.

First, here is a database that doesn’t have much legitimacy for research. (Frankly it’s for entertainment and illuminati-like conspiracy theorists) It’s method for ‘proof’ is aligning graphs and statistics to show relation. Spurious Correlations is a site that shows data with similar changes over time together with an implied connection. Some of the examples are outright, where others believe the data related under some butterfly effect. (See Reddit) Statistics gives people the ability to make relations, and some people, like Malcom Gladwell utilise these data to explain opportunity and truth.

Second, the people in academia sometimes have a sense of humor. In the field of linguistics, some PhD students banded together and created the Speculative Grammarian, a study on satirical linguistics. There is nothing illegitimate about their studies, but the nature of the study deviates from traditional ivory tower professionalism. They have a well written “Essential Guide to Linguistics” book and blogs all over mainstream social media. They focus highly on theoretical linguistics, and on topics that aren’t taken seriously, but provide all the study one would use on a dissertation.

The difference between these two sources are their depth and breadth into their works and how other schools of thought support – acknowledge the study. When we find information on Wikipedia, it’s analysed by people from eclectic professions all over the world. When one researches, they should check for acknowledgement of their material from other academic aspects.

Books:

Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success. New York, NY: Back Bay Books, 2013.

Jones, Trey. The Speculative Grammarian Essential Guide to Linguistics. Washington [D.C.? Speculative Grammarian Press, 2013.

Sites:

Reddit “This Website Finds Correlations between Seemingly Random/Unrelated Statistics Better • r/InternetIsBeautiful.” reddit. Accessed February 15, 2018. https://www.reddit.com/r/InternetIsBeautiful/comments/3tk2zm/this_website_finds_correlations_between_seemingly/.

“SpecGram—Speculative Grammarian.” Accessed February 15, 2018. http://specgram.com/.

Spurious Correlations “15 Insane Things That Correlate With Each Other.” Accessed February 15, 2018. http://tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations.