English 105 - College Writing: Evaluating sources / The concept of *authority*

First, a history lesson
on rhetoric and ethos/credibility

In 510 B.C., the ancient Greek city state of Athens became a democracy, a form of government that allowed ordinary citizens to collectively make decisions about how to run the state. As different factions arose in the democracy, along with political leaders who wanted to sway the citizens to support their competing visions for how Athens should be run and what actions should be taken in matters such as trade, justice, diplomacy, and war, a group of itinerant teachers called the Sophists came to Athens and said that for a fee they could instruct those who aspired to lead and persuade in the art of Rhetoric, or effective persuasion.

A rhetor (speaker or practitioner of rhetoric) who had received sophistic training -- so the sales pitch went -- would know how to use the most effective style, delivery, and arguments to move the audience (the people listening) to think or act in a different way. The philosopher Plato pooh-poohed the study of rhetoric/sophism, comparing it to fancy cookery that pleases people -- unlike philosophy, which he compared to medicine in that it can actually heal them. (Another accusation Plato liked to lob at rhetoric/sophism was that it allowed unscrupulous rhetors "to make the weaker argument appear the stronger.")

Plato's student Aristotle, by contrast, decided the study of rhetoric needed to be taken seriously, and he composed a long treatise called The Rhetoric which incorporating many ideas from both Plato's philosophy and the teachings of the Sophists. Famously, Aristotle divided rhetorical appeals into three categories -- logos (logic), ethos (credibility), and pathos (emotions) -- pointing out that even very logical rhetoric can fail if it doesn't engage with what people care about (pathos) or if the rhetor isn't considered believable or trustworthy (ethos).

OKAY, WHY THE HISTORY LESSON? Ethos is important in the context of college research because it helps explain why sources have differing levels of ethos/credibility in different contexts.

It's also important because there are many situations in our own lives where we will need to demonstrate/prove our credibility to an audience. (College writing is just one of these situations!)

In academia (what's this?), another word commonly used as a synonym for credibility is authority.

For example, you may get instructions for an assignment that ask you to find "authoritative sources".

(Note: This is not quite the same thing as "scholarly sources," but -- as we'll see -- authoritativeness is a key reason why citing scholarly sources is a requirement in most college writing assignments.)

In 2015 the Association of College and Research Libraries (what's this?) produced a set of guidelines for academic librarians called The Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education.

The first of the six frames the ACRL wants librarians to help students understand in order to be information literate is Authority is Constructed and Contextual.

What does it mean to say "authority is constructed"? It means it's a social construct, or a shared understanding among some people.

Among scholars and scientists (and in academia in general) the word authority connotes traits like expertise, rigor, and professionalism, and the sources typically considered to have the highest level of authority are scholarly sources.