Characteristics of good information
In this document I will be briefly describing all the
characteristics of good information.
When reading information the first thing you have to check
is if the information is relevant, so does the criteria of the information
you're reading match your own needs and requirements.
Then you need to know if the information is valid, it should
be unbiased and verifiable, (check what other people have rated it or check the
information with another website or facts that you already know.)
When you have your relevant information you have to check
that the information is reliable, so if you're researching over the internet
you would have to back your information up with another website or check the
conditions of the website, if the research matches another website then the
chances are that the information is reliable.
Another point you have to take into consideration is if the
research/information is recent, there’s no point looking for information that
was written 20 years ago, as times have changed and new things will have been
discovered.
If your research is up to date then you will know that the
information you are looking at is reliable and valid.
You also have to make sure your information is fit for
purpose.
For example the top table to the right is not fit for
purpose, there is no y or x axis and no labels or title, you have no idea what
you are looking at or what the table is showing you
The one at the bottom is fit for purpose, as you can see it
is clearly labelled and you know exactly what the table is telling
you.
It is also necessary that the data is accessible, and easy
to perform calculations with, although a printed report full of data and
information might be reliable and valid, you will have to key all the
information and data into your document to perform calculations, and if the
report contains a lot of data then it’s going to take a while.
One thing that you might have to take into consideration is,
is the data/research cost effective and is it worth it, if you're doing your
own primary research then it probably won't cost much but if you are trying to
save time you might want to get a secondary group to do research for you, this
usually means paying them to do that, but is it worth it if you're only doing a
paged document.
Your information sometimes doesn't have to be completely
exact, and may only need to be sufficiently accurate, for example if you want
to buy a second hand phone the price of the phone will differ depending on the
condition of the phone, so if you are saving up then you will need to know the
average price of the phone so you have room for flexibility, the phone could be
higher than you researched or lower, but you will still have an accurate
average price.
One thing you will have to make sure is the information in
good detail or in the specific amount of detail required, there’s no point
writing a sentence of work when the criteria required is a page of information.
What you have to make sure is if you have confidence in the
source, this usually means double checking and comparing the information you
have with another source or getting the information yourself (primary
information), if you get the research yourself then you should know that the
research has been done correctly and it should be more reliable and good information.
When creating a document you need to make sure you
understand who is going to be reading it (target audience) and if they are
going to be able to understand what you are saying and the language used.
If you are creating a PowerPoint for primary school children
you will have to try and avoid using complex words and put less information on
a screen and more pictures, you might have all the correct facts, but if it’s
for primary children then it only needs to be sufficiently accurate.
If you are creating a document for your boss or teacher then
the language used will have to be decent and the information will have to be
understandable and in good detail.
