Do Your Research!

and what does that mean?

I learned long ago that the people who spend the most time researching often have the worst results.

A Better Definition

The dictionary definition above doesn’t cut it because any “materials and sources” won’t help “establish facts.” As any flat-farther will tell you, there’s a wealth of information to support any view. Searching it out does not constitute “research.”

As a verb, “investigate systematically” is just as useless. Anti-vaxxers spend every free moment doing that, and it only reinforces their worldview.

Our dictionaries must be updated with specific descriptions of how to verify facts and to decide which facts are relevant to making an argument.

Definitely NOT Research

It will take more skill and knowledge than I have to produce a good definition of “research.” But we can agree what is NOT research:

Tweets/Twitter searches, Facebook

A tweet can point to real research through a link. A tweet in itself is not research. A Facebook post can be a fact, as in “My peanut butter …