An author’s bias is any opinion or prejudice that affects that author’s writing and prevents the author from being completely neutral about the topic or issue about which s/he is writing.

If it presents a one-sided view of a controversial issue, or the author dwells on his or her opinion without giving equal time to opposing viewpoints. If it uses negative language to describe opposing viewpoints, products, candidates, etc.

Bias refers to a. writer’s prejudice for one side of a particular issue. A reader can identify bias by looking carefully at the. following elements of a text: • Denotative and Connotative Meaning: the denotative meaning of a word is its literal dictionary.

Bias in writing can be defined as: ● A prejudice against something an author is writing about. An author letting feelings or emotions cloud his/her objectivity with regard to something he/she is writing about.

If you notice the following, the source may be biased:

1. Heavily opinionated or one-sided.
2. Relies on unsupported or unsubstantiated claims.
3. Presents highly selected facts that lean to a certain outcome.
4. Pretends to present facts, but offers only opinion.
5. Uses extreme or inappropriate language.

A source is objective if it provides both sides of an argument or more than one viewpoint. Although you can use sources that do not provide more than one viewpoint, you need to balance them with sources that provide other viewpoints.

Any such trend or deviation from the truth in data collection, analysis, interpretation and publication is called bias. Bias in research can occur either intentionally or unintentionally. Bias causes false conclusions and is potentially misleading. Therefore, it is immoral and unethical to conduct biased research.

If a newspaper or magazine article is biased, it means that it takes sides and does not give a fair representation of both sides of an argument. If a newspaper or magazine article is balanced, it means that it does not take sides and it considers both points of view in an argument or situation equally.

Prejudice for or against a person, group or idea that is based on personal opinion rather than objective facts.

Neutral articles are written with a tone that provides an unbiased, accurate, and proportionate representation of all positions included in the article. The tone of Wikipedia articles should be impartial, neither endorsing nor rejecting a particular point of view.

Stay Neutral In An Argument – 10 Phrases

1. I’d like to __ out of this one. be.
2. I don’t really __ an opinion either way. have.
3. I don’t want to take __ part.
4. To be honest, I don’t want to get __ included.
5. Can you leave me __ this? away from.
6. It’s not really for me to __ argue.
7. I think you’re both __ in different ways. ”
8. I’m going to sit on the __ for this one. fence.

The definition of neutral is not taking part in a fight or war or having very little color. An example of neutral is a person who does not take sides in an argument between two friends.

NPOV which is neutral and unbiased presents fairly and by far all significant views published by reliable sources. Neutral point of view is important in this society since it encourages cooperation among encyclopedias’ contributors.

neutral point of view

The authors found that “Wikipedia articles are more slanted towards Democratic views than are Britannica articles, as well as more biased”, particularly those focusing on civil rights, corporations, and government.

They found that Wikipedia is significantly more biased than Britannica by this measure, and a bit more left-leaning. Wikipedia articles are longer, on average, than Britannica articles, and on a per word basis Wikipedia is actually slightly less biased.

There have been documented problems caused by open, anonymous gatherings of people in Wikipedia, such as the writing of vitriol (noted in 2003) or wiki-gangs (noted in July 2005). Another problem is that anyone can edit articles at any time, so people can vandalize articles, as long as they have an account.

Abuse was common enough that it quickly developed a reputation for being unreliable, and because many students don’t think about why rules exist, they simply said, “No wikipedia.” In actuality, Wikipedia is a fantastic tool specifically because so many people can post, edit, and change things.

As an online encyclopedia which almost anyone can edit, Wikipedia has had problems with vandalism of articles, which range from blanking articles to inserting profanities, hoaxes, or nonsense.

Main Disadvantages of Using a Wiki as Knowledge Base

• The software can be too difficult for non-technical users to on-board.
• You have a limited search function.
• Sharing information outside your wiki is almost impossible.
• As anyone can make changes in your content, you can’t maintain consistency in your knowledge base.

A problem commonly reported by Microsoft Internet Explorer users relates to Wikipedia content that seems to be out-of-date. The problem usually manifests as disappearing page edits or days-old current events. This problem is almost always caused by browser caching.

“Wikipedia is slow” is a top search on many major search engines. Here area a few tips to fix issues when Wikipedia is slow: Make sure your internet connection is fast enough. Delete your cookies, temporary internet files, and disable your browser plugins.

But is the website on the brink of bankruptcy? The answer is no. Run by non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, Wikipedia’s balancesheet looks quite healthy. In fact, its donations have increased many folds in the last seventeen years.

They found that while Wikipedia articles were rated at 83.8 percent for completeness, the information published in the articles was 99.7 percent accurate. Explore the talk pages (connected to articles and where users debate edits, suggestions and content) of prominent articles to see what edits are being discussed.

Bias means that a person prefers an idea and possibly does not give equal chance to a different idea. Facts or opinions that do not support the point of view in a biased article would be excluded. For example, an article biased toward riding a motorcycle would show facts about the good gas mileage, fun, and agility.

“Avoiding bias seems a commendable goal, but this fails to recognize the positive role that bias can play in the pursuit of knowledge.” Discuss this statement with reference to two areas of knowledge.

Avoiding Bias Means Becoming Open and Aware The best way to learn from those biases is to push ourselves: to continue to notice where we might fall into our “prior-way-of-thinking” traps, then look for opportunities to invite new perspectives, and challenge our ideas.

There are ways, however, to try to maintain objectivity and avoid bias with qualitative data analysis:

1. Use multiple people to code the data.
2. Have participants review your results.
3. Verify with more data sources.
4. Check for alternative explanations.
5. Review findings with peers.

Steps to Eliminate Unconscious Bias

1. Learn what unconscious biases are.
2. Assess which biases are most likely to affect you.
3. Figure out where biases are likely to affect your company.
4. Modernize your approach to hiring.
5. Let data inform your decisions.
6. Bring diversity into your hiring decisions.

Implicit biases impact behavior, but there are things that you can do to reduce your own bias:

1. Focus on seeing people as individuals.
2. Work on consciously changing your stereotypes.
3. Take time to pause and reflect.
4. Adjust your perspective.
5. Increase your exposure.
6. Practice mindfulness.

In the workplace this can have a negative impact on recruitment decisions, slow down employee development, impair diversity and drive up attrition. A common component to many people’s cognitive behaviours, the concept of unconscious bias is made even more complex by the many types of biases that can exist.

Some examples of cultural influences that may lead to bias include:

• Linguistic interpretation.
• Ethical concepts of right and wrong.
• Understanding of facts or evidence-based proof.
• Intentional or unintentional ethnic or racial bias.
• Religious beliefs or understanding.
• Sexual attraction and mating.

Researchers say negative emotions like fear and sadness trigger increased activity in a part of the brain linked to memories. These emotionally charged memories are preserved in greater detail than happy or more neutral memories, but they may also be subject to distortion.

And the optimal ratio is amazingly similar—five positive comments for every negative one. (For those who ended up divorced, the ratio was 0.77 to 1—or something like three positive comments for every four negative ones.) Clearly in work and life, both negative and positive feedback have their place and their time.

How to think positive thoughts

1. Focus on the good things. Challenging situations and obstacles are a part of life.
2. Practice gratitude.
3. Keep a gratitude journal.
4. Open yourself up to humor.
5. Spend time with positive people.
6. Practice positive self-talk.
7. Identify your areas of negativity.
8. Start every day on a positive note.