Anecdotes, testimonials and personal studies

< Back to search results
  • Format Websites
  • Language/s English
  • Target Audience Self-directed learning
  • EBM Stage 3 - Appraising evidence
  • Duration <5 mins
  • Difficulty Introductory

Key Concepts addressed

Details

Journalists often use anecdotes or personal stories to make their stories seem more relevant to people’s lives or emphasise why a piece of scientific research matters. They are usually presented as case studies of individuals’ experiences, which may not include any facts or figures.

Often, a personal story won’t be based on any credible scientific research at all. For instance, a website that sells a cure for cancer that uses magnets might include stories of people claiming they’ve benefitted from it, even though no human study of “magnet therapy” has ever been done.

Read more

Discussion

Leave a Reply

0 Comments

You may also like

Diagnostic tests

Resources for teaching LR etc

Rated from votes
Please log in to rate items
gradepro exercise