For some time - probably since either a Windows 10 or an Adobe upgrade - I have not been able to view colour pdfs as they were created. I have discovered over time that this is actually two problems: one issue is that I cannot print pdfs in full colour, and the second is that pdfs which I open online display properly in colour in the web browser, but once I download them to my PC, they no longer display in full colour properly. Every now and again, as I strike the problem, I go for a look for a fix for each. Recently I found a fix for the second problem; the "how to display pdfs in full colour properly" issue. It was a surprisingly easy fix. Simply open the document which is not displaying properly, go into File | Preferences | Accessibility. Then ensure that I"Replace Document Colors" is UNTICKED. The problem goes away, just like that. Now, I must admit, that Accessibility is NOT where I would have looked for pdf colour settings. The Adobe developers must have squirrelly brains like a pretzel. The second issue is still proving elusive. I wish it was as easy to solve (five months and no fix). Sam
Ah: the things we don't know until we see how someone else has presented them! I have been reading Machin et al's (2019) book, "Transversing the Doctorate". Chapter 1 has a lovely section, where the chapter authors - Bautista and Escofet - cover five elements which they feel PhD candidates require if they are to complete their doctorates successfully.
Those five elements are (Machin et al, 2019, p. 18):
"Information: identify, locate, retrieve, store, organise and analyse digital
information, judging its relevance and purpose". In other words, we can handle data, and we can turn it into information that adds value to our project.
"Communication: communicate in digital environments, share
resources through online tools, link with others and collaborate
through digital tools, interact with and participate in communities
and networks, cross-cultural awareness". We can tell others about the data, and explain how we turned it into information, using expert evidence, in a way that is respectful and expansive.
"Content-creation: Create and edit new content (from word processing
to images and video); integrate and re-elaborate previous knowledge
and content; produce creative expressions, media outputs and programming;
deal with and apply intellectual property rights and licences". We can fit that data and information into new frameworks, make it work in different environments, and see how other's work fits with our own. We can translate our research understanding into other fields.
"Safety: personal protection, data protection, digital identity protection,
security measures, safe and sustainable use". We know how to protect those whom we have promised to protect, how to keep our own data safe, and can see what there is of value, and how that too can be protected as much as it needs to be.
"Problem-solving: identify digital needs and resources, make informed
decisions as to which are the most appropriate digital tools according
to the purpose or need, solve conceptual problems through digital
means, creatively use technologies, solve technical problems, update
one’s own and other’s competences". We can extrapolate situations to their logical conclusions, and develop appropriate contingency plans. We get a feel for what we don't know, and set out to either learn, acquire or contract in the skills and tools we need to complete our project. We know how to stay on track. We have planned what 'done' looks like, and can manage to that.
This is a broad, but solid group of skills. It is also easy to see how this fits into almost any aspect of our working lives.
Sam
Reference: Machin, T. M., Clara, M., & Danaher, P. A. (2019). Traversing the Doctorate: Reflections And Strategies From Students, Supervisors And Administrators. Palgrave Macmillan.
One of the most useful things in pdfs is the ability to create bookmarks. They can be used as a document outline, highlights of key phrases, or to take me to important places.
All we need to do is to bring up the left-hand document navigation pane (F4 if you can't see it). then we simply highlighting the text we want to show in our bookmark, then click on the bookmark icon (that's the one that looks like the end of a ribbon).
Once we have created all our bookmarks, we can then move them around, and next them underneath each other to make a tree (you can also get a bit of free kit, thanks to keen volunteers, which allows us to print out a bookmarks list, which can be viewed here).
However, recently I got a new pdf, and started making my usual outline of the document... only to find that the font on each bookmark was gobbledygook. For some reason my computer was reading the font as something other than English, and was doing its best to make sense of it... and having an epic fail.
I went looking for a solution, but suspect that my wording or syntax was inadequate for the task, because I couldn't get a solution. I tried going into Edit, then selecting each object, and setting the font to Times New Roman (as it is so ubiquitous) but that didn't work either.
So I created a new file from the original, by printing to pdf. The file then had to be rescanned using OCR, and resaved. There is probably an easier way, but for now, at least, I can create my bookmarks.
Books of financial tips can be extremely useful. I was quite pleased to see that my digital library service had a new book called "Money Hacks: 275+ Ways to Decrease Spending, Increase Savings, and Make Your Money Work for You!", a brand, spanking new book by Lisa Rowan, and available for loan. Just released in September, I thought that during Covid-19 was an ideal time to think about being prudent.
It was a quiet, rainy Sunday, and I settled in for a good read. Ah. Only to be disappointed in Hack 1, Avoid the Spending Trap!, with the promise that "you can strategize how to pull back. Think about breakfast the night before to avoid the morning rush. Send your friend a Venmo request for their share of the bill while you’re still sitting at the diner. Set an alarm on your phone so you don’t order 'just one more drink' after happy hour has ended. Head to the store after work—when you have less time to browse" (Rowan, 2020). I have none of these habits. If I am having dinner with someone we will have sorted out beforehand who is paying, and we pay at the register. I only shop when I need something. I don't eat breakfast, but have snacks already in my backpack. I definitely don't do happy hour before I drive home (in fact, I don't drive if I have even one drink). Oops, already feeling like I am the wrong demographic.
Hack 4 suggests using calendar entries to pay bills on time. Why make payments manually? Doesn't Lisa know about bank authorities and automatic payments? Hack 6 suggests that we use Kristin Wong's 10/10 rule, which is that if we want to buy something that is over $10, we wait ten minutes. If we still want it then, we buy it (Rowan, 2020). OK: I usually wait somewhere between a fortnight and six months before buying. Yep, Definitely the wrong demographic.
The coffee hack (7) that Lisa suggests feels Starbucks-oriented, carrying large denomination notes (10) unusual, using a store discount app unworkable (11), following brands (12) unlikely, and free shipping (14) impossible down here in the Antipodes. Membership clubs (19)... ah, we don't really have those unless you are a Farmlands member - which is totally the wrong demographic! What is 'overdraft protection' (30)? Who uses Venmo (33)? A little American-centric then. Adding on streaming services and subscriptions? Not possible in my universe.
Some were impossible in a cashless society: living cash-only (36). Some were silly: start a new hobby (39) - how will you fund the kit?! If you already have the kit, then it is not a new hobby... is it?
This was not going well. I persevered. Some hacks were good: when we go grocery shopping, don't use a trolley, only purchase what we can carry (16). Keep a notebook and list what you spend as you spend it (17), which might work... if we are disciplined enough to later review our spending. The Dan Ariely-inspired 'anti-goal' idea of having a set amount to spend on entertainment was good: that if we blow out on one line in that category, we sacrifice another (32). Set up a holiday account (34). Have a no-spend month (35). An impulsive supermarket shopper may benefit from getting groceries delivered to avoid rash purchases (43).
One entry was really telling, about framing a positive narrative (25): it appears that saying "I can’t afford that" is not something that Lisa thinks we can say. Perhaps she hasn't been to Uni: we all got very good at saying that we were discretionarily skint, and I have never lost that habit. Ah well. It now doesn't surprise me that the USA is the world's largest consumer of electricity, oil and consumer goods (OurWorldInData, 2020). If this book got a publishing contract, many Americans would appear to have appalling finance habits.
If you are one of the 7.5 billion who do not live in America, skip this book. If you live in the Antipodes, DEFINITELY skip the book, and join the Simple Savings website instead (https://www.simplesavings.com.au/).
Sam
References:
Rowan, L. (2020). Money Hacks: 275+ Ways to Decrease Spending, Increase Savings, and Make Your Money Work for You! Adams Media
I watched an interesting vlog by Tara Brabazon (2016), providing ten tips for finishing a PhD, which I thought were quite a useful summary.
Planning is everything: "start with the end in mind" (Covey, 1989); predict and plan to meet likely challenges; have data by the end of the second year; assess your data; understand and explain the dataset including strengths, weaknesses and critique them; ensure there is time to cut away most problematic pieces of the work and therefore strengthen what remains.
Have clear priorities: our job is to write a PhD; everything else is secondary. But temper this with the next point...
It's ONLY a PhD: determine clear boundaries so we focus on what the job is, and getting it complete. Do not agonise about it not being perfect: done is better than perfect (after Mewburn, 2012). It is the first real piece of research we do, and our academic career starts after it.
Discuss feelings: talk about how we feel with partners, supervisors, peers. In particular, supervisors will have solutions that we - and those close to us who have not lived through this many times before - will not have thought of to help; but only if we let them in.
Check software, hardware, wetware: ensure the support systems work, regularly. Backup, backup, backup. Email a copy of our work to ourselves every week. Use version control.
Read University Regulations: ensure we understand ALL submission and IP requirements. Check that our document will fit those requirements. Ask questions. Ensure that there will be no surprises at submission. Treble-check dates.
Prioritise health: fitness, food, sleep. Use a diary to carve out time for health activities, use software, technology, relationships to ensure that the wetware does not fail.
Career planning: think past the end of the PhD programme. Talk to your supervisor about post-PhD publications, and next steps.
Build relationships: Again, take advice from our supervisors, our colleagues, our peers and our networks to ensure that we keep networking, building research partnerships, and keep connecting. Remember that only 30% of jobs are advertised.
Endings matter: finish our supervisory relationships well, so we have a long-term, professional academic relationship. Finish the PhD well, so we have a document we can be proud of. Finish the University relationship well, so they would have us back.
For all of us who have been driven batty by: hidden Windows folders; by circuitous, arcane routes to installing software; or by hidden folders where we need to store a piece of kit to make an add-on work and stymied by not being able to find it; then this little shortcut should help!
Simply go to the Windows search box (beside the start button, as per the illustration accompanying this post), and key in:
%APPDATA%
Those pesky hidden personalised folder options will appear. Keying return will open the Windows Explorer folder.
That enables us to find whatever the software folder it is we are looking for. So easy, yet so hard to find when you need to.
In July of this year I posted on how to delete our old Facebook activity (here), but Facebook themselves moved on with new platform updates. There is now more data, easily available, which we can dump from our profiles, such as old searches, and the videos we have watched.
Why? Getting rid of this information helps to reduce FBs ability to target advertising to us, or to 'accidently' have a data breach to a marketing company with our preferences et cetera.
In addition, the link to find our own FB activity is simpler. All we need to do is to log in to our Facebook account, copy the URL below, and simply replace the 'our-user-name' element of the URL with our Facebook user name, and we will be taken to a page which contains all our activity:
Then simply scroll down the links in the LEFT-hand sidebar, as shown in the accompanying image, click on the post you want to delete, and a grey circle with horizontal menu dots will appear. Simply click on that, and you will see the options available for that particular piece of data. For example, if we hover over a 'like', then we will see an option to "Remove reaction".
To misquote Hill Street Blues - for those of you old enough to remember it - let's be invisible out there.
To be briefed regularly on what is happening in our fields, what I have done is to set up a GoogleScholar search on keywords I am
interested in. I get emailed daily.
The process is pretty simple:
Be logged into your Google account
Run a search in GoogleScholar using Boolean search terms (e.g. Career+"Career Practice"+"New Zealand"; this will return any new entries which contain ALL of these terms; career, career practitioners, New Zealand will return any entries which contain any one of the four; "Career Career Practice New Zealand" will return only those which contain these four words in order).
On the left-hand side of the page you will see a link beside an envelope icon, "Create alert". Click the link
On the Alerts page, set up how many options you want to see each day (I set this for 20), and double check that the email is correct
If you have ever answered a post on Quora, then you may understand my perplexity in trying to find the source author of Quora questions. I have spent ages trawling the site trying to find out just whom I am replying to. You would think it would be easy.
But no.
In fact, it is so complicated to find the information, that users are continuously asking how to do it. Lots of questions. It has been asked at least 286 times, phrased in slightly different ways, and Quora's AI has merged those questions into in ONE post:
How do I find out who wrote the question I am reading on Quora?
Why don't we see who wrote the question in Quora?
How can I get to know who asked the question on Quora?
How can you determine who asks a question on Quora?
How do I find a questioner on Quora?
Where do I find the name of the questioner in a Quora question?
How will I know who added the question on Quora?
How can I know who is the questioner on Quora?
How do you find out the questioner on Quora?
Often I see answers mentioning the name of the asker, but I only see the question. Where is that information?
Where can I see the question-asker on Quora?
How can I find the asker of a question on Quora?
How can I check the asker of a question on Quora?
How can I see the asker of the question on Quora?
Do people sometimes ask a question and answer it themselves? Where can we see the names of those who ask the questions on Quora?
How does one see who wrote a given (not anonymous) question?
How can I see who raised Questions on Quora?
How does one see who wrote a given (not anonymous) question?
How can I see who raised Questions on Quora?
How do I view the name of the person who raised the question on Quora?
How do you know the name of a person asking questions on Quora?
How do I see the name of the person asking the question on the Quora website (not on the mobile app)?
How can we see the names of who asks all these endless "beating a dead horse" questions?
How do I find out who wrote the question I am reading on Quora?
How do you tell who asked you a question on Quora?
Can anyone see who posted the question on Quora? If so, how? merged into How do I find out who wrote the question I am reading on Quora?
How do I see who is asking the question on Quora? I see the name and short bio of the person answering, but I never see the name of the person asking the original question.
When I see a question with an answer on Quora, how can I see who asked the question?
How can I see who posted the question in Quora?
How can we see who asked a question on Quora?
How do I see the person who has asked the question on Quora?
How do you see who has asked a question on Quora?
How can you see who posted the question on Quora?
How do you see who is asking the question on Quora?
How can you see who has asked the question?
How do you see who asked a question on Quora?
This might be pretty basic Quoraing, but how do I see who has asked a question?
How do you see who asked a question?
How do I see who has asked a question on Quora?
On Quora, how do you find out the name of the person who asked the question?
How can I see who has asked a question?
How do I find the person who asked question on Quora?
How do I see who has asked the question in Quora?
How do you find who has asked question on Quora if it's not anonymous?
Can I find out who added a question in Quora?
How do I find out who asked a question on Quora?
How do Quora users find out who asked a question?
Quora: How do I find out the name of a person who asked questions on Quora?
Where on Quora can I find who WROTE a question?
How can we see the person in Quora who wrote the question?
How do I know who wrote a question on Quora?
Can I, or can't I see who posted a Quora question? If affirmative, how do I go about that?
Feel like a newbie asking this, but how does one see the author of a question? I have never been able to see it, yet others seem able to track down who wrote a question.
How do you know who posted a question?
How do I know who it is that is asking a question I am viewing on Quora?
Assuming it wasn't asked anonymously, how do I find out the original writer of a Quora question?
How can I find out the author of a question on Quora?
How do I know who is the author of a question on Quora?
How do you find out who asked the question on Quora?
How can you see who is asking the question on this website?
Is there a way to see which user asked a question on Quora?
How do you see who the person was that asked a question on Quora?
How do you find out who asked a question in your Quora feed?
How can I see the writer of question in Quora?
December 2018. Can I, or can't I see who posted a Quora question?
How do we see who posted the question in Quora?
How can you see the author of a question on Quora?
If we see a particular question on Quora, then is there a way of checking who asked the question?
Assuming it wasn't asked anonymously, how do I find out the original writer of a Quora question?
In Quora, how do you know who ask a specific question?
How do you see who posted a question on Quora?
Where can I find the author of a question asked on Quora?
How can I know who posted the specific question on Quora?
How does one find the profile for the OP of a Quora question?
How do people identify the author of a question on Quora?
How do you tell who the author of a Quora question is?
How could we know the person posting the question on Quora?
How can I identify who asked a question on Quora?
Feel like a newbie asking this, but how does one see the author of a question? I have never been able to see it, yet others seem able to track down who wrote a question.
How do I identify the person who asked a Quora question?
What are some ways to find the owner of a question on Quora?
How can we know the name of the person asking question in Quora?
How do I find who asked a certain question on Quora?
How do I know who it is that is asking a question I am viewing on Quora?
On Quora, how do I find the author of a question when using the Android app?
How can you see the user who writes a question on Quora?
How do I find out who asked a certain question on Quora?
How do I know who is the original asker of a question at Quora?
How do you find the author of questions on Quora?
How do you know who posted a question?
How do I find out who asked the question on Quora?
Using an iPad with the Quora app, how can I tell who the questioner is?
How do I know who is the OP of a question?
How can I see who asked a given question?
How can I see a poster’s identity?
How do people know the names of the posters on Quora?
Can I know who asks me questions on Quora?
Is there a way to know who asked a question on Quora?
On Quora, how do I know who has asked/posted the question? merged into How do I find out who wrote the question I am reading on Quora?
Why doesn't Quora tell us who asked the question?
Do we see who questioned on Quora?
Can I find out who added a question in Quora?
May be a stupid question, as it may be a setting I have selected, but how does one see the author of a question here on Quora?
How do I find out who asked a question on Quora?
How can I determine who specifically posed a question on Quora?
How can I find out who asked a question on Quora?
How can you see who wrote a question on Quora?
How do I view an entire Quora question, such as who the asker is and what examples/pictures they use?
Why can I no longer find out who has written a question on Quora? 'Question stats' has disappeared.
How do I find out who posted a question?
How can I see who wrote a question on Quora?
Where do I see who asked the question on Quora?
How does one know who the person writing a question is, if it is not listed on the heading?
How do I check who asked a question on Quora?
How can I come to know who posted a question on Quora?
How do I see who wrote a question on Quora?
Is there a way to know the identity of those who post questions on Quora and if the questions are genuine?
How can you tell who wrote a specific question (click on question, but is there a 'written by' tab) on Quora?
How do you see who is asking a question on Quora?
Perhaps I'm an idiot, but how can I tell who asked a question on Quora?
How do I see who is asking the question on Quora?
How do you "see" the author of a Quora question?
How does one know if a Quora author is anonymous or find out who wrote the question?
How can I see who asked a question on Quora if they didn't use the anonymous tag?
How do I see who asked a question of interest?
How can you tell who the asker of a Quora question is?
How do you find out who asked a question on Quora (posted by visible accounts, not anonymous)?
How can you see who wrote a question?
I may be stupid but how do I find who the original poster of a question is?
How do you find the person who asked a question on Quora?
How do you see who wrote a question, when you see questions that come up on your home page?
Can you see the names of people on here from the questions they ask?
How can you view who asked you a question on Quora?
Can you see the names of people on here from the questions they ask?
How do I find out who wrote the question I am reading on Quora on a web browser in the PC?
How do I find out who asked a question? I don't see anything that lets me do that.
How can you tell who wrote the question on Quora?
How can I see details on who posted a question on Quora? I can only see the question itself and the posted answers, along with details on who posted the answers, but never any details on the questioner.
How can I know who are the users who send questions?
How do I ascertain who posted a question (basic)?
How can I foin out the name of a person who has posted a question on Quora?
How does one find out who asked a question on Quora? The reason I ask is that the answers to this question given previously outline a process I am unable to replicate.
Is there any way to find out who is the asker of a question on Quora?
From where can I learn who has asked a particular question on Quora?
How do I find the author of a question in Quora?
If a question comes up that you like how do you find out who wrote it?
How can readers find out who asks the questions? It looks like you only allow seeing who answers the questions.
How do you find out who composed a question on Quora?
How do you look at the author of a question on Quora?
How can I see who has asked the question on Quora?
How do I determine the author of a question?
Can you see who asks questions on Quora or are all questions posted without any info about who asked?
How do I see the OP of a question?
Is it possible to find out who the author of a Quora question?
How can I see the name or background of a questioner? I frequently see other commenters reference that information.
How do we find the author of the question on Quora?
How do I see the authors of the questions on Quora?
Can people see who wrote a certain question?
How can I see who asked a question on Quora if they didn't use the anonymous tag?
How do I see the person who have posted a question on Quora?
How can you determine who posts a particular question on Quora?
Can you find out who is asking a question on Quora? If so, how?
How can someone know the author of a question in quora.com?
How do I find information about the person who initially posted a question on Quora?
How can I find out who asks the question on Quora?
How can I see who asked a question on Quora if they didn't use the anonymous tag?
How do I check who asks the question in Quora?
How do I find out who asked the question I am reading on Quora in the new version?
How do we find out who asks the questions on Quora?
When someone asks a question on Quora, some people act as if they know who asked it or if it was asked anonymously, but I can't see anything on or around the question that you can click to see who asked it. Is there a way it can be done?
How do I find the author of a Quora question?
When answering a question on Quora, how do some people have access to the writer's name? I don't appear to have that info and would appreciate it if it's available.
How does one find the original poster of a question on Quora?
Where do you see the author of a question? merged into How do I find out who wrote the question I am reading on Quora?
How do I check who asked the question on Quora?
Is it posssible to see the profile name of someone that asked a question?
How can I find out who asks silly questions on Quora?
How do you find out who an original poster is?
When a question is asked on here, how do we find out who the original poster is?
How do I find the name of the person posting a question on Quora? For some reason the names do not appear with the questions. I am using an app (Quora Insights) and not a web browser.
Why can't I see the names of people posting questions?
I am not much into technicalities of Quora. How can I find out who has asked a question?
How can I tell who has asked a question on Quora?
How can you tell who is asking a question?
How do I see who posted a Quora question if they're not anonymous (like me)?
How can we tell who asked the question on here?
How can I find the authors who ask a question in Quora?
Where can I see how old the question is? Or who posted the Question on Quora?
Can you see who asked a question in Quora?
How do you find out who authored a question asked on Quora?
How do you find the name of the person asking a question on Quora?
Is it possible to see who wrote a question on Quora? If yes, how?
How do I know who have asked the question on Quora, as their name is not visible while replying?
How do I find the person who is asking the question in Quora?
How do you find the name of the questioner?
How does one know who the OP of a Quora question is?
How do you who is asking the question? It is not always visible.
How do I see the name of the questioner on Quora?
How do you find out who is asking the question on Quora?
Where do you see the author of a question?
How can I read the questioner's name? The only options I see when clicking on the three dots don’t include a name.
Where do you see the author of a question?
I'm Curious: how do you find out who is asking a question on Quora?
How do I see who asked a question on Quora?
How do you see the original poster of a question on Quora?
How do you find out who asked a question?
How do I find who is the author of a Quora question?
How can I find the author of a question in Quora?
How do you view who asked a question on Quora?
How can I find out who asked a particular question?
How do I tell who asks a question and add details under a question that I ask?
How can you tell the person who asked a question?
How were you able to discover the person that is asking questions on Quora?
How do you see the author of a Quora question?
How can I see who asked the question?
How do I see who posted a question on Quora?
How can I find out who asked a particular question?
How do you know which Quora user asked a question?
How do I find out who wrote a question on Quora?
How do you find out who has posted a question on Quora?
How do I see the name of the user asking a question?
On Quora, where and how can I find the name and profile of the person whose question I'm answering?
How can I see who asks the questions on Quora?
How do you see the OP of a question?
How do you view the profile of the user who asked a question on Quora?
How do I see who posted a Quora question if they're not anonymous (like me)?
How can I identify the Quora user who asked a question?
How can you tell who asks a question on Quora?
How can I see who asked a question on Quora (desktop)?
Can I see the profile of the person who asks a question?
How do you figure out who the OP is? It’s confusing that we only see names of people who are answering.
While I've been reading Quora for quite some time, I have noticed times when a person answering mentions checking the original posters profile, etc. I've clicked on the question and still cannot find who posted it. How do you do that?
How do you figure out who the OP is? It’s confusing that we only see names of people who are answering.
How can you see who asked a question on Quora?
Where can I see how old the question is? Or who posted the Question on Quora?
How do you know who wrote a Quora question? I see people who know who wrote the question, but I don't see the writer's name or profile and can't figure out where to find it.
How do I find who wrote the question I am reading on Quora using a desktop application?
How could you know the asker of a question on Quora?
How can we find out who posed a question on Quora? It would help to know.
How do you know the original question asker of a Quora question?
How do you see who wrote a question?
If the question isn’t asked anonymously, can we locate the source?
How do you see the OP of a question?
How do you view information about the OP of a question?
How can I see who asked a question on Quora?
How can one find out who is posting a question on Quora?
How can I find out who wrote the Quora question?
How do I find out who asked the Quora question?
How can I find a person who wrote a question?
How do you know who wrote a Quora question? I see people who know who wrote the question, but I don't see the writer's name or profile and can't figure out where to find it.
How do I find the name of the questioner? I only see the name of the answerer.
How do you view a profile that posted a Quora question?
How do you check the writer of a question on Quora?
How can I find out who asks question on Quora?
How do you view information about the OP of a question? I see other posters referring to the number of times someone has asked a question or the types of questions they have asked in the past, but I have never been able to find a link to get there.
How can I find out who asks question on Quora?
How can I determine who posted a question on Quora?
How do I find the questioner profile on Quora?
How can we find the question author in Quora?
How do I identify who asked a question on Quora?
How can I see who asked a question on Quora?
How do you know who wrote a Quora question? I see people who know who wrote the question, but I don't see the writer's name or profile and can't figure out where to find it.
How do I identify the author of a question on Quora?
How can one find the owner of a question on Quora?
How do I find the name of the questioner on Quora?
How do I find who wrote the question I am reading on Quora using a desktop application?
How do I check who is asking the question on Quora?
How do I find out who is asking a particular question on Quora?
How do we find out on Quora who wrote the original question, and if it has been edited?
How do I find out who wrote the question I am reading?
How do I get to know the identity of the questioner in Quora?
How do you see who wrote a question in Quora? There used to be question details if you click on the "…". That is no longer available.
Why don't we see who wrote the question in Quora?
How do you know who wrote a Quora question? I see people who know who wrote the question, but I don't see the writer's name or profile and can't figure out where to find it.
How can I see who asked the question on Quora?
When someone posts a question, how can I tell who posted it?
How do I find who wrote the question I am reading on Quora using a desktop application?
How can I see the name of the poster of a Quora question?
How can I find out which user asked a question?
How do I see who wrote a question?
How do you find out who wrote a question?
Can I find out who added a question in Quora?
How can I find out who wrote a question?
How do I find out who wrote the question I am reading on Quora?
How can I see who wrote the question I am viewing?
How do I find out who wrote the question I am reading?
Message for Quora: if this site were my piece of kit, I think I might be saying "Gosh, there are a lot of people who don't know how to do this. Perhaps I should make it easier?"!!
While we want to be polite and say "Hi Brent" when we answer someone, we generally find ourselves unable to do so, as this bit of info is buried deep. However, what we need to do is to click on the header for the question, and click the menu icon (...) on the right-hand side. Then select "View Stats and Log" from the pop-up menu.
Then we will see the page of information as shown in the illustration at the top of this page. We need to ensure that we scroll right the way to the bottom, else we may will pick up the identity of someone who has answered the question, not someone who posted the question.
It is generally considered that there are three types of academic argument: classical - aka Western, or Aristotelian - argument (Excelsior Online Writing Lab, 2020; Macauley, 2020); Toulmin argument (1958; read more here); and Rogerian argument (aka 'persuasion'; Nordquist, 2019).
However, across these three types, there are also a few characterising approaches to argument. Those are considered to be structural; pragmatic; and the cluster of inductive, deductive and conductive (McKeon, 2020), as follows:
Structural: this is the "if this, then this" type of argument. This type of argument can be displayed in standard form: Premiss 1, Premiss 2, Premiss 3, Therefore: Conclusion (p1, P2, P3, ∴ C). This is used a lot in science, often paired in hypothesis testing research. There is no 'why': there is only evidence.
Pragmatic: this is where a 'reasoner' proposes several premisses as supporting reasons, and explanations of 'why', "to rationally persuade an audience of the truth of the conclusion" (McKeon, 2020; Pierce, 1908). We gain an understanding of other perspectives, but also have to be alert to the reasoner's aims in case they differ to our own, or are contrary to reality.
Inductive/deductive/conductive:
Deductive: basically, if the premisses are true, then the reasoner's argument should be valid; a step by step, known outcome model. McKeon provides an example: "It’s sunny in Singapore. If it’s sunny in Singapore, then he won’t be carrying an umbrella. So, he won’t be carrying an umbrella" (2020). We talk a lot about validity here. This is a mathematical argument (even though this is often called 'mathematical induction'). We can see how this fits with structural argument.
Conductive: the reasoner provides "explicit reasons for and against a conclusion, and requiring the evaluator of the argument to weigh these competing considerations, that is, to consider the pros and cons" (McKeon, 2020). Provide all the arguments and let the audience decide for themselves. We can see how this too fits with pragmatic argument.
And then I read a great piece by Patters on retroductive argument (Thompson, 1999), which is also known as abductive argument. This is where "an explanation is proposed to account for an observed fact or group of facts, [...] i.e. any type of similarity or co-occurrence, including (but not limited to) location in space and time. For example, 'Jones was in the building at the time of the murder. Perhaps he is the killer,' or 'The blood on the victim's shirt matches Jones' blood type. Perhaps Jones is the killer.' In the second example, the similarity of blood type is the concomitance on which the inference turns" (Thompson, 1999). Lovely.
So retroduction - aka abduction - is where we take an "observation or set of observations and then seek[...] to find the simplest and most likely conclusion from" them (Leslie & Van Otten, 2020): an Occam's Razor approach, if you will (though we do need to be careful of affirming the consequent). What I also find useful is how well abduction fits with Pierce's pragmatic approach (Commens Digital Companion to C. S. Peirce, 2020). What is also interesting is that 'abduction' is thought to be a corruption of retroduction. Conduction is not mentioned anywhere. It seems that, for Peirce, retroduction is conduction. Different schools, maybe.
We could plot the characteristics of argument on a continuum and see the shift from absolutism to fuzzy logic, as is shown in the accompanying illustration. I suppose someone has done this before, but it was new to me :-)
In academic writing, and particularly in the literature review, we are "seeing fault, error or other possibilities in the work of another and making suggestions for improvement or change" (Hart, 1998, p. 79). While I would like to focus on the more positive area of possibility, part of our job as researchers is to critique the existing literature, and to clearly show that there is still more for us to learn. Yep, to focus on the negative, and to "[f]ind the gap".
Stephen Toulmin wrote a seminal work in 1958, called "The uses of argument". It outlines a series of essays about how we develop clear argument - argumentation - from probability to epistemology. He identifies a number of criteria which good argument requires. Helpfully, Hart (1998) summarises and applies Toulmin's criteria, which aid us in evaluating and in constructing an 'adequate' argument.
Following Hart, "we can work our
way systematically through the different elements of an argument [using] Toulmin's structure [...] as our guide
and at the same time [it] provide[s] us with a structure for our writing (1998):
"Claim - clarity, plausibility, cogency, consequences, practicality" (p. 178). This is the thrust of what we are saying, our 'claim'
"Evidence - amount, relevance, reliability, reproducibility, credibility" (p. 178). This is the data we have to offer in support of our claim
"Information - details, sources, contacts, time periods" (p. 178). How we have clustered our data into information to support our claim
"Warrant - robustness, degrees of connection, assumptions, rhetoric" (p. 178). An "expectation that provides the link between the evidence and claim" (p. 88). This is a 'since' statement.
"Backing - problem awareness, admissibility, strength, validity" (p. 178). This is the "context and assumptions used to support the validity of the warrant and evidence" (p. 88). This is a 'because' statement.
"Conclusion - logic, substantiation, consequences, plausibility" (p. 178). What this elements our argument means in the overall scheme of things.
This list is very useful as a checklist for arguments we are developing. As an example, consider the claim that "car owners should restrict washing their cars in areas of the country where there is a water shortage". The evidence is that "Car washes can use up to 250,000 gallons of water [... depleting] reservoirs by 20%". The warrant is that "since water is essential and people should not waste it in times of shortage", and the backing is "because water shortages [...] are a danger to people and can be costly" (Hart, 1998, p. 89). Although the conclusion is not spelled out, it is implied that we would be reckless to waste water when that might endanger others.
Ensuring that all six elements are present in each paragraph will help us to ensure that when we write, we have prepared sound argument.
Sam
References:
Hart, C. (1998). Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the social science research imagination. SAGE Publications Ltd.
Toulmin, S. E. (1958). The Uses of Argument (Reprint 1969). Cambridge University Press.
I have an interesting problem with the new version of Blogger. I permanently show two blog posts at the top of my blog roll. At the top is my "Welcome" post, and in second place is an advice to potential contributors.
In the old blogger, to keep those posts at the top of my blog roll, I would simply publish each article, then re-date them a year ahead so they always show at the top. However, Google has just moved everyone to an updated version of Blogger, and the forward dating function appears to no longer be available. It seems that posts will only appear after the scheduled date.
While I tried in both Firefox and Chrome, I was unable to date a post ahead and save it. I could set the date, but when I tried to save, it gave me a message "The publish date of an already published post cannot be set in the future". <sigh>
This meant that come 31 December this year, I would be unable to keep my two 'pinned' posts at the top of my blog roll. I posted on the Google Community, asking for a fix, but have not yet had an answer.
In the meantime, I went looking for a solution, or a work around.
And I found a work around from 9JAEDUBLOG (3 October 2020), although I don't know how long the link to the legacy format will last. We can access the 'legacy' Blogger by copying our blogger ID into the following black text in this URL:
In New Zealand, Christmas arrives in the middle of summer. In my family, we have a pot luck lunch or dinner at someone's house (one of us usually volunteers to host). We usually have a BBQ, tell stories, look back at photo albums (hard and soft copy), play board games, do jigsaws, and munch on leftovers. If we are feeling energetic we will go for walks, go to the beach for a swim and beach cricket, and/or get out on the bikes. Or we may fall into a cataleptic stupor having laughed ourselves sick playing Cards Against Humanity, following the hoovering of the lunch leftovers and one too many glasses of bubbly/cider/beer (strike out those which do not apply). We also might sing, perhaps doing a cover of Ronan Keating carolling a Meri Kirihimete:
I have blogged about regifting before (here), but I got sparked up by a Houzz article on 16 things that we could do in November to make Christmas less stressful. I read the list of things and kept thinking: don't do that; don't do that; don't do that... and being amazed that so many of us complicate family time with so much irrelevant crap. I know that in the Northern hemisphere it is a time to hunker down and do things that keep us out of the cold. I get that. What I do NOT get is the flaming waste of all the mis-directed spending and angst. There are calculations which show that Christmas spending was around USD$66b in 2007, with recipients feeling that the gifts missed the mark while feeling that they cannot get rid of what becomes an albatross (Waldfogel, 2009).
"From about age ten on—when we first develop well-defined preferences— we endure receiving gifts that we do not like. To make matters even worse, we are obliged to pretend to be grateful" (Waldfogel, 2009, p. 25). When others buy for us, "it’s pretty unlikely that they’ll choose as well as we would have chosen for ourselves. We can expect their choices, no matter how well intentioned, to miss the mark. Relative to how much satisfaction their expenditures couldhave given us, their choices destroy value" (p. 28, emphasis added).
Again, considering my family, the adults have a "$5 Christmas". This means no one may spend more than $5 on a present for any one person (and have to be able to produce the receipt if challenged). in this year of Covid, we are going hard out and are only allowed to make things or to recycle existing things.
Children get to make presents - or buy $5 ones - but get 'proper' presents from the adults. We usually do lots of behind the scenes negotiation for getting what parents would like their kids to receive. Not only does this mean that we give less tat, it also means we can collaborate and give a larger 'unicorn' present. Once the kids become teenagers, we simply do a bank transfer, so we don't give things that fall into the Hogsnort Rupert "Aunty Alice" category. For those of you who do not know what that is, watch the video below:
However, if we get given Aunty Alice presents, the giver knows they will get a return, when we regift it, 'straight back atcha'. This created a lot of laughs and Wimbledon manoeuvres over the years. For example, there is an UGLY ornament perpetrated by my niece which has gone back and forth a number of times. It may have finally gone to an Op Shop (NZ for thrift store) when my niece moved last year, but I won't know until Christmas <Cue Jaws sound track>.
The Houzz article does point out that saving this year's Christmas paper for next year helps to prevent the 'tearing of paper', so generates little waste in that area. However, we don't wrap presents: we may use recycled paper gift- or shop-bags that we have collected through the year; or we may simply make a flax bow and put a repurposed cardboard label on it. We have simplified Christmas over the years to make it a real family event. It is about people, not things.
This year, as very few NZ retailers use plastic shopping bags, I am considering making roomy and sturdy cloth bags this year out of doubled-up Op shop men's winter shirts. I will buy those too damaged to be sold, so destined for rags or flocking. I will design each with a colour palette to suit each recipient, with handles the 'right' length. Made with love, each one full of Christmas memories, each time it is used. And I might even stencil a Cards Against Humanity card on the outside of each one.
Let's focus on people at this time of year. And cut the crap, eh?
