The best way to determine a scholarly article is legitimate online is if you found it on a database and the author is a scholar or a researcher in the field or specialty; whose purpose is to inform and report original research or experimentation. In this case I went to Texas A&M’s database and found an article written by Ann, Blair professor of history at Harvard University. “Information Overload, Then and Now.” This article is an extremely informative piece that talks about how our information has evolved. The author’s main point is that “information overload was experienced long before the appearance of today's digital gadgets.”
She believes writing was the first culprit, it caused the rise of text beyond a single mind could process. Through the evolution of writing we have found ways to keep up with time and the amount of information that has accumulated. We tend to go to “storage facilities” that allow us to retrieve an array of information in a macro and micro sense. Blair explains it as “libraries and the Internet, and not only books and Web pages but also specific parts of them (like arguments, quotations, or facts).” Blair continues talking about this certain evolution and hoe contains “tools for searching and retrieving.” Such as note taking, the invention of paper, then printing.
In her article she gives examples of how throughout history people have some how complained differently about information. For example she talks about how in the 16th century people complained of the overflow of books and how some were bad and some good. Out of this a solution was needed and genres came out. “My study of information management in the era of humanist note-taking and early printed reference books has left me wondering about what we risk losing in academic scholarship as we move more of our work to electronic media: Storing.” She continues talking about how information needs to be redundant and preservable in order to not be forgotten. “But computers preserve only what has been upgraded to match their ever-changing specifications.” Therefore we need to find a way to adapt to the new form of information overload and in the eyes of Blair and diminish the loss of academic scholarship.
This article indeed gives off a great rhetorical impression because the author is an expert in the field she is talking about and gives great examples about how information has evolved and appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos throughout her article. What is interesting is that she is more informative than persuasive through her article.
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