Authority is Constructed and Contextual

What is authority? What do we mean by context and constructed?

Authority: When we talk about information and authority, we mean to say that some information is more credible or more trustworthy than other information. For example, you will often hear your profs ask for "scholarly articles" or mention "peer reviewed" as a requirement for assignments. For many types of academic work, scholarly (written by scholars) or peer-reviewed (checked over by scholars) means you can trust the correctness and accuracy of the information. 

Context: When we talk about information and context, we mean to say that the authority of the information depends on who produced it, why it was produced and how it is to be used. While peer-reviewed journal articles are important types of information, in some cases the only acceptable form of information, we must also understand that there are other sources of information that may matter or complement items like journal articles, depending on the how or for what purpose it is to be used.

Constructed? When you research and write your paper, you will be looking for "scholarly" information and may need to draw on information gathered from various sources to convey your topic - using sources that are considered reputable, trustworthy or valuable you will be building or constructing for yourselves authority and credibility. 

Lateral Reading - Sorting Fact from Fiction

It is often not simple or straightforward to tell what a piece of information is, what biases exist, and how credible the author or producer is at first glance, particularly in a digital environment. Let's watch this short video about Lateral Reading:

Searching for information...

Gender Studies is often described as an interdisciplinary course of study rooted in feminist theory. Because of this, articles, journals, reports and ebooks covering WGST topics or written from a feminist / gender studies / perspective can be found in nearly all subject areas. 

Google Scholar, searching broadly and chaining for efficiency

Chaining means using one piece information that is relevant and valuable to find another. This is where citations come in handy or the bibliographic information in them can be valuable.

• Try searching the citation and using "cited by" to find items on same / similar topics
• Try searching a known author's name to find other publications by the same researchers

How to use information ethically

Citation is giving attribution to researchers, scholars, activists and other knowledge and information-producers. It is demonstrating your authority to your reader (it's where you got your information).

The reasons you cite:

• To give credit where credit is due – to avoid plagiarizing
• To give information about a source so people can find it

You need to cite:

• In text
• At the end (reference list)