How do academic texts manifest cognitive authority? Why do we give credibility to papers written in certain ways and not others? This presentation addresses these questions in ways that focus on the question of how you, the MA student, are asked to do this in essays; and, importantly, why we ask you to do so. The issue is a case study of cognitive authority in a specific setting but should therefore also provide practical guidance to you when it comes to thinking about essay writing. I also cover the issue of academic malpractice. On Slideshare, the audio track embedded in this presentation will be missing.

1. EDUC61711 Digital, Media
and Information Literacy
Week 3: Cognitive authority and academic texts
(OR: “what you’re doing when you write an essay”)

2. Aims of presentation
• This presentation has two (related) objectives.
• I want to use the writing of an academic essay as a
particular context, in which we can think about
how cognitive authority, information landscapes
and literacy interact
• But because this is also a setting you are actively
working in: it becomes also a practical guide to
how to do these tasks well.

3. So learn these lessons well,
and be more likely to graduate
with a good mark :-)
Some MA DTCE graduates, Dec. 2013 —
>
Note also that this presentation contains a few tasks marked
‘Stop and Think’. You will get much more out of this if you do,
indeed, stop and think before moving on.

4. Writing essays…
STOP &
THINK…
…why do we ask you to write
assignments of various kinds
as part of your degree studies?
(as with all these tasks, there is no
‘right answer’ that I expect you to
find… the point is to reflect on your
own feelings about the question)
If you think there are obvious
reasons, note them down, but try
to think of other reasons too.

5. • Obviously the essay can be seen as a product.
• It is a way of assessing whether you have met the
specified learning objectives of the course and, thus,
whether you should pass the course.
• We do this through the mechanism called ‘the grade’
(or ‘mark’).
• This is known as summative assessment; and normally
(though not always) takes place at the end of the
course.

6. • BUT — there’s much more to it than that…
• How about looking at the essay from the other
side — from your side?
• What do you get out of it?
• If you didn’t come up with any answers in the
stop & think task that were focused on what you
get out of it — have another think for a moment

7. The essay as a process
You can also see essay-writing
as a process that improves your
own ability to understand the
connections and arguments in a
field of study.
Through answering questions or
addressing an issue, you explore
something, and the essay is the
summary of your exploration.
So we could see the essay as akin to a map of some
kind.

8. But this is not a map created after some aimless
wandering through an information landscape.
The exploration is directed by the assignment specification.
The ‘map’, therefore, is one focused on a specific subject area,
emphasising specific elements as appropriate.

9. • Whatever form the assignment takes (answer a question? address
an issue? explore a context?)…
• …you need to state a position, then that position should be justified.
• In other words, you need to convince a reader of your work that
the position you are taking is valid and credible.

10. STOP &
THINK…
…about cognitive authority for a moment
What we are talking about here — demonstrating
credibility and the validity of a position — is the same
thing as when you have to assign that credibility to what
you read (online or off).
As a student on this course — how can you demonstrate
this?

11. Key points raised in this file:
Masters’ level study is about finding
your own routes through the landscape
Citation of authors justifies your conclusions
Good essay structure also plays a part
Formative v summative assessment: the role
of feedback
Play the audio
file (8:45)

12. Academic malpractice
It is important to talk about this…
BUT: too often, the subject is raised in
purely negative ways, in the form of
warnings and threats of punishment…
…leaving students feeling as if they
are only one misstep away from
academic execution and, thus,
rather paranoid and fearful.

13. STOP &
THINK…
Let’s start with your own view of the issue then…
What do you think constitutes “academic malpractice”,
and — importantly — why?
And if you can, address the question of why with
reference to what we’ve already discussed in this
presentation e.g. cognitive authority, formative assessment.

14. • Broadly, there are three forms of malpractice that I am going
to discuss in the remainder of this presentation:
1.Plagiarism (including ‘auto-plagiarism’)
2.Impersonation
3.Falsification of data
There may be more. If on the previous slide you came up with
another, don’t discount it. But I’ll focus now on these three.
(Cheating in exams would be another, but as we don’t use
exams on the MA: DTCE, I won’t address that one.)

15. Plagiarism
Formally, plagiarism is defined as the passing off of another
person’s words as your own.
Informally — “copy and paste” syndrome…
This chapter will critically review a broad range of literature that has engaged over the last
40 years with the quest to define and then deliver forms of ‘information literacy’ (IL).
When the term was first used in the 1970s, authors such as Zurkowski and Burchinal used it
to refer to the enhancement of information management skills, and saw formal education as
the route by which IL would be enhanced in the general population, to help countries
continue to meet economic goals in the digital age. However, Cees Hamelink (1976)
defined IL as skills and awareness that needed to be developed, not in, but by populations,
in order that they could defend themselves against de-skilling, and develop collections of
informational resources that could counter those pushed at them by dominant interests. The
chapter will review how the notion of IL has developed from these original seeds, and
become institutionalised around the notion of information retrieval and consumption, rather
than the broader notion of information practice and empowerment. The relevance of this
for e-learning lies in the area of professional development, and how e-learning technologies
can be structured in different ways. Some permit the kind of critical enquiry into how they
impact on work practices (whether teaching, or otherwise); but others are more directive,
and help reinforce a limited view of IL and its cognate, ‘digital literacy’, one which is
purely competency-based and does not capture the full range of how learners and teachers
alike need to engage with e-learning and the experiences it offers.
…from the book you may
have read…
Some permit the kind of critical enquiry into how they impact on work practices
(whether teaching, or otherwise); but others are more directive, and help reinforce
a limited view of IL and its cognate, ‘digital literacy’, one which is purely
competency-based and does not capture the full range of how learners and
teachers alike need to engage with e-learning and the experiences it offers.
…into your essay, without
attribution.

16. The point about attribution is essential, because it is of course
fine to quote the words of other authors in academic
writing.
Indeed, it is an essential aspect of good quality writing.
These people are just a selection
of the many authors whose words
and ideas I have used in my books, for example
(l-r: Habermas, Hamelink, Gramsci, Bruce,
Andretta, Bakhtin)

17. But to show my debt to them, I cite them, like
this…..
Look at the document provided in Blackboard about citation
practice and conventions, for more guidance here.
The relational frame is the most significant vis-à-vis IL pedagogy. Bruce et al suggest that the
relational frame brings together, at least, the content and learning to learn frame (2006, 42):
“learning in this frame is understood as coming to discern things in new or more complex
ways”, and learning occurs when variation in ways of understanding or experiencing are
revealed. This will “expand focal awareness” (Andretta 2007b, 156); put more simply, it will
give learners something new to think about. Personal constructs may, as noted above, lead to
them rejecting the new information; but personal constructs can themselves be the focus of
teaching in the relational frame.
The second part of Bruce et al (2006, 43-55) describes some case studies of relational IL
teaching…
(Susie Andretta’s words: not mine)

18. • Thus, citation is how you show your familiarity with the
information landscape.
• Taking someone else’s words or ideas and passing them
off as your own is actually detrimental to learning. It gives
us no idea what you know or don’t know.
• This apart from it being basically dishonest.
• If you use the words or ideas of another author — CITE
THEM. It’s a simple rule…

19. This also applies to auto-plagiarism — copying from work you
may have done in the past.
It’s fine to cite yourself — we do it all the time. This is from my
2014 book:
Yet this is difficult to translate into practice, even in countries which are sympathetic to these goals.
Once again, common themes emerge worldwide (Whitworth 2010, 317-8):
“Ponjuan (2010) makes the general point that any national IL policy is challenging to implement
because very few countries have experience working with the library and information science field
as well as educational communities like teachers: the links between these different groups are weak
in most places. Consequently, IL is rarely recognized at the highest political level, being “subsumed
within an ‘information society’ agenda focusing primarily on the promotion and development of ICT
skills and infrastructure” (Russell and O’Brien 2009, p. 102: see also Whitworth 2009).”
Note also the secondary reference, or
‘quote within a quote’ (see the accompanying
PDF for more guidance on all this)
These words were previously used in a 2010 paper

20. If you simply re-use material that you have written before,
perhaps in your former studies or for a different essay on the
MA: DTCE…
…we cannot properly judge your learning on this course, and
how well you are meeting the learning objectives, understanding
the landscape etc.
If you are ever in any doubt as to how you should be referring
to your own previous work or the work of any other author —
ASK YOUR TUTOR.
These kinds of things are what we are here to help you with!

21. Impersonation
Pretending to be someone else is
obviously a serious bit of malpractice…
Hard work to sustain throughout a whole
degree, but this is one reason why we insist
on web-cams for distance learners.
However, this also covers the use of
‘essay banks’ — places from which you
can buy a pre-written essay, or pay
someone to write one for you.
Is it necessary here to go into detail about why this is
malpractice?

22. Falsification of data
• You might think this cannot apply to you, but you will be
doing your own small-scale research in the MA: DTCE.
• In a recent case, one student claimed to have done interviews
for a pilot study yet words she attributed to her respondents
were found to have been auto-plagiarised from an essay done
for another institution…
• Once again, then, we could not give her credit for meeting the
learning objectives of that course unit (one of which was
demonstrating the ability to gather data).

23. • As I said — it is not the intention of the last few
slides to scare you…
• …merely to promote good practice and help you
see why these things are looked on harshly.
• Having been teaching for 15 years now I believe
most malpractice is caused by not leaving yourself
enough time to do the work…
• Which is why good time management is
an important aspect of academic
literacy.

24. Know when your deadlines
are…
…what time you have available to
work (particularly important for
part-time students)…
Keep a diary…
…and if you are getting into difficulties,
tell your tutor. We will always try to
extend consideration.

25. Academic literacy…
• Remember the point that ‘literacy’ is often context-
specific, to do with learning forms and modes of
expression in a particular context
• Yes, some people are innately more ‘literate’ than
others, but literacy also can be learned and practised.
• This presentation has introduced you to some basic
points about academic literacy; how to express
yourself effectively in this context.