1. Authorship in Psychology
James Elander
Hello, I am ………………, and I want to spend the next 40 minutes or so talking to you about authorship, plagiarism and your written assignments. I hope we will also have time for some discussion and debate.
This little session is part of a larger project called the ‘Promoting Authorship’ project. This is taking place at three universities in London – Thames Valley University, London Metropolitan University, and Middlesex University. So while you are here this afternoon you are part of something bigger than just this session. The project is funded by the Higher Education Academy Psychology Network.
And because this session is part of that larger project, we are collecting some information to give us an idea how useful it is. If it is useful, we will look for ways to bring the project to larger numbers of students, and in any case we will be developing what we do today to make them more useful and student-friendly, if possible. So feedback from you is extremely helpful.

2. The questionnaire Make a note of the number on your questionnaire
When completed, pass to the end of the row for collection
Thank you for that!
The first part of this is to collect a little bit of information from you before we begin. This is a very short questionnaire about what you think about writing psychology assignments.
You can tear off the first page and keep that for your own information.
You will see that there is a number in the top right corner of the questionnaire. Make a note of that now on a separate piece of paper – you will need the number later, after you have handed in the completed questionnaire.
We will spend just a few moments for people to complete the questionnaire.
When you have finished yours, pass it down to the end of the row.
Now I can collect the piles from the end of each row.
Thanks you very much for doing that. Now lets begin!

3. Outline What does it mean to be the author of something?
What does a writer have to do to be the author?
What about being the author of a psychology assignment?
Here is my agenda for today. It is about being an author, what you have to do to be an author, and what that means specifically when we turn our minds to the kinds of written assignments that psychology students have to write.
Who can think of an author whose work they have read? Who is your favourite author?
What about yourselves? Any authors here today?
In fact, all of you are authors. You may not think of your self as an author, but if you write something yourself, you are an author.
So what does it mean to be an author? Any suggestions? Can anyone suggest what the definition of ‘author’ is?

4. Definitions
Author: “The person who creates a written work, such as a book, story, article or the like…” (
Authorship: “an explicit way of assigning responsibility and giving credit for intellectual work”. (
Here is one definition, from wikipedia. This tells us two things. First that it relates to written work. Second, that it is about creating that written work, that is, bringing it into being, making it for the first time, making something that did not exist before.
This is obviously something that should apply to students – they have to produce lots of written work – too much, you might think, with not long enough between submission deadlines – and what you produce has to be something that didn’t exist before – it can’t just be copied out of a book. So an important part of being a student is about being an author.
There is also a definition of ‘authorship’, from a very useful web site on this subject. This tells us two useful things about the concept of authorship.
First, its about responsibility. Meaning that the author is the person who has to take responsibility for what is in the work they produce.
Second, the author is the person who is entitled to take the credit for it. If it is good, it says something good about the author.
Both these things – responsibility and credit – mean that the author has to put something of themselves into what they write. And they have to add something – even a very little bit – to what existed before they produced the piece of work of their own.
Anyone read one of Fay Weldon’s novels? She is a famous author, though perhaps not so well known to today’s students. (she wrote ‘The She Devil’ for example)

5. Fay Weldon on authorship
“You write because you think you know something that others don’t and you read because you are hoping to find out something. Writers have to provide that – they have to add something.”
(THES , p. 7)
Here is something that Fay Weldon said about being an author, in an interview in the Times Higher Education Supplement quite recently. (She was being interviewed because she had just been made Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University).
She makes the point that the author has to give the reader something that wasn’t there before. She was talking about creative writing – novels and so on – but the same is true of academic authors – the people who write research papers and articles, and students writing essays, reviews, project reports and so on.
So what does a writer have to actually do to qualify as an author? That is, to take responsibility for the work, and be able to take the credit for it? What they do comes down to taking some key decisions, and it is those decisions they have to be responsible for, and that lead to the credit they can take for the work. What sorts of decisions are involved in producing a piece of written work?

6. Decisions the author has to take
What the message is
What secondary material to use
How much importance of emphasis to put on different parts
How to interpret the material
What words to use to express the ideas
What conclusions to reach
Here are some decisions an author has to take. They have to decide what the piece of work is really all about – what the message of it is, what it really says to the reader, what they want the reader to go away knowing or thinking about.
They have to decide what secondary material to use. This means the facts, evidence, and other details that they have discovered in their research, not dreamt up themselves. For students, this is material they have found in books, in journal articles, or on the internet. All authors do some research for their writing – some more than others – but students probably do more than most.
Then they have to decide how to use that material. Which parts will they use? How much importance or emphasis will they attach to different parts?
Then they have to decide what to say about the secondary material – this means deciding what it means, how it should be interpreted, what the author themselves wants to say about it.
Having decided what the author wants ot say, they then have to decide what words to use. This is the nuts and bolts of writing, but is another way that the author gives their own individual style, or stamp, to the work they are producing.
And they have to decide what conclusions to reach, what the take-home message of all the material is, and this takes us back to the first point, about deciding what the piece of writing is all about.

7. A piece of journalistic-style writing
Eating disorders show how the culture of an affluent society can damage the health of its most vulnerable members. In western countries life is very stressful, almost everyone is dissatisfied with their body, and there is an epidemic of dieting. When emotionally vulnerable people try to get some control over their lives, the result can be anorexia or bulimia, which were once rare disorders but are now quite common. Psychological theory can explain what is going on in people’s minds, but the problem won’t go away until there is a change in western values and culture.
Here is a piece of writing about eating disorders, written in rather a journalistic style. Let’s take a quick look at it….
What do you think about that?
What is it trying to tell us? What is the ‘message’?
What kind of writing style is the author using?
Let’s think about the decisions the author made that led to the piece being written that way?
What decision do you think the author made when writing this?
[Note – there is no source for this – it was written by James Elander]

8. What did that author decide?
To announce the conclusions right at the beginning of the piece
To adopt a very bold style
To place emphasis on cultural factors
To present some ‘facts’ that will need supporting with evidence
To use certain words and phrases -
…epidemic of dieting…
…emotionally vulnerable people…
…going on in people’s minds…
Well, here are some of the decisions that I can think of.
They are about the ‘message’ of the piece, which is right upfront at the beginning.
They are about the choice of words used to get that message over.
They are about the ‘facts’ that were used in relation to the main point the author wants to make.
Of course, in a piece of academic, or university writing, it would be different. The author would probably decide to be more cautious in their choice of words.
And they would almost certainly use some secondary material, from other sources, to provide some evidence in support of the ‘facts’.
Shall we look at how an academic psychologist might have written a piece like this?

9. A piece of psychology writing
Eating disorders make up a relatively new category of psychological disorders, and reflect the fact that psychological or emotional problems can manifest themselves as severe disturbances in eating behaviour. The most prevalent of these disorders are anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN). These are normally considered as separate disorders, although both are associated with an obsessive fear of gaining weight and the individual’s dissatisfaction with their own body shape (as compared, for example, with media projected ideal images of body shapes). Prior to the 1960s, both AN and BN were relatively rare disorders, but have since become considerably more prevalent in western societies.
Well here is a very similar piece of writing about eating disorders from a psychology textbook.
What is different about the way this is written?
Where can you see that the author has made different decisions from the author of the previous piece?
(From Davey, 2004, Complete Psychology, p. 586)

10. What did that author decide?
To begin in a much more measured way
To use a more cautious style
Not to reach such a strong conclusion
To focus more on psychological factors
To use more moderate words and phrases –
…considerably more prevalent…
…psychological or emotional problems can manifest themselves as…
…both associated with…
Here are some of the decision I can think of…
The ‘message’ or conclusion is less strong and assertive.
There is more emphasis on measurement and classification.
The choice of words is much less bold and confident.
But it has one thing in common with the previous example – there are no external sources for the ‘facts’ that are presented. No secondary material presented as evidence.
If you wrote like this in a student essay, your tutor might ask - ‘where is the evidence for the points you are making?’
For students, this business of finding facts and evidence to back up what you want to say, and including it in your written work, is sometimes the trickiest part of writing at university.
Why is that? Well, let’s consider the reasons why…

11. Being an author is difficult for students
You know less about the subject
You rely on a lot of other sources for your material
You are not sure what your own position is
You are (probably) writing under extreme time pressure
Obviously, you know less about the subject than the author of the textbook, so you have to do the work to find the secondary material as well as writing the essay or assignment itself.
Of course, doing the research and digging around for the facts and other material for your work is part of being a student. You are expected to do that, as it is part of the learning process.
And because you are learning about the subject, you don’t know at the beginning what the message of your essay will be. That probably emerges while you are writing it, whereas the textbook author probably knows in advance what their message is going to be.
And of course, you don’t have time to do the research as fully as you would like, and you just have to submit the work by a certain day, whether you are ready or not.
These aspects of being a student writer often lead to students getting into problems with their writing. Let’s look at some things that students said about writing, when they were interviewed as part of a recent project.

12. Things students said about writing
“If you make a claim, you get an article or a book that you can say proves your point. It’s like it’s not off the top of my head, someone else has found this.”
“They want everything backed up by previous research and journal articles. You can’t just make a point and leave it at that, you need to show the evidence is out there. This has been said and it is in this journal or this book.”
These two students have taken on board that what tutors are looking for is evidence from verifiable sources to back up the points they make. And they are right, of course. Tutors do look for some evidence that student have been doing some research and learning about the subject.
But it is possible to place too much emphasis on showing that everything can be verified and all the points in the essay have a source somewhere else.
Lets look at something a tutor said about student writing, when they were interviewed as part of the same project…
(From Norton et al. (2006). Writing essays in higher education: a guide for students by students. Assessment Plus Project)

13. Things a tutor said about students’ writing
“I don’t think they get what they’re asked to do…. I think they think they’ve got to show they’ve read stuff and so they paraphrase and plagiarize.”
Tutors often say things like this. It is a reaction to students who go overboard with using material they have found in books, journals or on the internet, and don’t give enough attention to doing their own writing.
Lets look at a piece of student writing. This comes from a sample of real student essays that were analysed as part of the same project. It is about eating disorders again – we are sticking with that theme today!
Read this and tell me what you think of it as a piece of writing…
(From Norton et al. (2006). Writing essays in higher education: a guide for students by students. Assessment Plus Project)

14. Extract from a student essay
How do different psychological theories explain the development of eating disorders?
“Bulimia patients typically binge when they encounter stress and experience negative affect. Patients with bulimia nervosa are low in self-esteem” (Garner, Olmstead & Polivy, 1983, p. 1). “Many young women with an eating disorder come from families that demand ‘perfection’ and extreme self-control but do not allow expressions of warmth or conflict” (Rosman & Baker, 1978, p. 1). “With regard to bulimia, there may be a deficiency in the neurotransmitter serotin, which plays a role in both mood regulation and appetite” (Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology, p. 1).
What do you think?
It seems to read quite well, at least at first.
It contains some evidence – there are several references, and some extracts from those sources.
What is the problem then?
[A: all of it is in quotes. There is none of it that seems to be actually written by the student!]
Now – if the student has not written any of it themselves, is this a case of plagiarism?
(From

15. Plagiarism? Discussion point… Pause for some discussion.
A: Probably not plagiarism. After all, the student has not tried to pass off someone else’s writing as their own.
Everything is neatly enclosed in quotation marks. And the sources are all given. So if there is a correct reference section at the end, probably no crime has been committed.
So if it is not plagiarism, then what is the problem?
I think the problem is about authorship – is the student actually the author of this work?

16. Is the student really the author?
Discussion point…
Pause for more discussion.
What do you think about whether the person who ‘wrote’ this is really the author?
What decisions have they made about this piece? Do they qualify them to take the credit for it?
Or have they acted more as the editor of the writing, rather than the author?
Putting things in quotation marks is obviously quite a tricky business. You can do too much of it.
Let’s look at something else a student said in that project about using quotes.

17. What a student said about using quotes
“I think it is sometimes difficult to choose exactly what quote you’re going to put in and also kind of like making it relevant, as you said, and sort of putting in why you’ve chosen that particular quote, because I know that the feedback I’ve had on my essays – ‘don’t use so many quotes and establish why you use them’, basically. ‘What was the point? Why was what that person said better than something else?’”
This student has taken on board something a tutor wrote in the feedback comments on their work.
It looks as if they were using too many quotes, not being selective enough, and not showing why the quoted material was being included in the essay.
Lets go back to that same student essay that was all in quotes, and look at how it might have been written – with the same references and same points, but this time made in the writer’s own words.
Read this and tell me what you think…
(From Norton et al. (2006). Writing essays in higher education: a guide for students by students. Assessment Plus Project)

18. Is this an improvement?
How do different psychological theories explain the development of eating disorders?
Bulimia has been associated with stress and negative emotional states, and Garner et al (1983) claimed that many patients with bulimia have low self-esteem. Family factors may also be important, especially in terms of the demands they may place on young women and the opportunities they provide for expressing emotions. For example, demanding perfection and self control, but not allowing expressions of warmth or conflict, were said to characterise the families of many young women with eating disorders (Rosman & Baker, 1978). There is also evidence that neurophysiological factors are important mechanisms in the development of eating disorders. For example, deficiencies in serotonin, which regulates both mood and appetite, may be part of the cause of bulimia (Hilgard, 1999).
What do you think?
Who thinks that is better than the previous one?
What makes it better?
Is the ‘message’ any different? [A: no, not really]
What decisions can we see the author made?
A: about what words to use, what point to make with the evidence from the references, and what interpretation to place on the secondary material.
What this comes down to is that here the author is using the materials from the references to make a point of their own, whereas in the previous one they were just presenting what another author had said.
Now plagiarism is not just a hot issue at universities. Some very famous people have got into trouble over it. Who has read The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown? Do you remember the court case when he was accused of plagiarism?

19. Author of novel accused of plagiarism
HISTORIANS APPEAL DA VINCI PLAGIARISM VERDICT
DAN BROWN's bestseller THE DA VINCI CODE is to face the courts again as two historians appeal against the not guilty verdict in the novel's plagiarism case earlier this year (APR06). A judge previously ruled the central themes which the historians said Brown had copied from their 1982 book THE HOLY BLOOD AND THE HOLY GRAIL were "too general" to be protected by copyright law even if they had been reproduced.
This is how part of the case was reported.
Actually, Dan Brown was cleared. The court found that although he had used ‘themes’ from a previous book, he had not taken the words from another author. After all, Dan Brown invents the characters in his books, he writes the dialogue, the things the characters say, and he invents these thrilling plots…. [that is, if you are a Dan Brown fan!]
All he had taken from the previous book was the idea that Jesus had had a child, whose descendants are still alive, and who has been protected by a secret society. Those were the ‘themes’ referred to by the judge in the previous reports of the case.
So Dan Brown was in the clear. But some other famous people have been caught more or less bang to rights.
Take Tony Blair for example. Who remembers the ‘Dodgy Dossier’ on Iraq’s supposed weapons of mass destruction just before the invasion of Iraq?

20. Blair’s ‘dodgy dossier’ on Iraqi WMD
Government dossier: (page 13), published Jan "Saddam appointed, Sabir 'Abd al-'Aziz al-Duri as head during the 1991 Gulf War. After the Gulf War he was replaced by Wafiq Jasim al-Samarrai. After Samarrai, Muhammad Nimah al-Tikriti headed Al-Istikhbarat al-Askariyya in early 1992 then in late 1992 Fanar Zibin Hassan al-Tikriti was appointed to this post. These shifting appointments are part of Saddam's policy of balancing security positions. By constantly shifting the directors of these agencies, no one can establish a base in a security organisation for a substantial period of time. No one becomes powerful enough to challenge the President."
Here is an extract from the famous dossier…..

21. The original source
al-Marashi document: Section: "MILITARY INTELLIGENCE“, published Sept relevant parts have been underlined Saddam appointed, Sabir ‘Abd al-‘Aziz al-Duri(80) as head of Military Intelligence during the 1991 Gulf War.(81) After the Gulf War he was replaced by Wafiq Jasim al-Samarrai.(82) After Samarrai, Muhammad Nimah al-Tikriti(83) headed Military Intelligence in early 1992(84) then in late 1992 Fanar Zibin Hassan al-Tikriti was appointed to this post.(85) While Fanar is from Tikrit, both Sabir al-Duri and Samarrai are non-Tikriti Sunni Muslims, as their last names suggest. Another source indicates that Samarrai was replaced by Khalid Salih al-Juburi,(86) demonstrating how another non-Tikriti, but from the tribal alliance that traditionally support the regime holds top security positions in Iraq.(87) These shifting appointments are part of Saddam’s policy of balancing security positions between Tikritis and non-Tikritis, in the belief that the two factions would not unite to overthrow him. Not only that, but by constantly shifting the directors of these agencies, no one can establish a base in a security organization for a substantial period of time, that would challenge the President.(88)
And here is the PhD thesis that was on the internet, that large parts of the dossier were taken directly from.
The underlined parts here are the words in the past slide from Tony Blair’s dossier. Almost all of the words in the last slide are the underlined words here!
So was Tony Blair (or Alistair Campbell) guilty of plagiarism?
A: Yes, probably they were.
Of course it is not just politicians. This has happened to some psychologists.
Take the case of Raj Persaud, the famous media psychologist…

22. Psychologist accused of plagiarism
Here is an article in the Guardian on 7th November Poor old Raj has been accused of stealing someone else’s words. He has got into a lot of trouble over this, and some of his books and journal articles have been withdrawn, and his reputation has suffered a great deal.
It’s an interesting case because he was one of those extremely busy people, producing large amounts of writing very quickly. He must have been working under extreme time pressure. The explanation he give is also very interesting.
He denied intending to plagiarise, of course, and the reasons he gives for the unintentional plagiarism are interesting, as they focus on the referencing. He says the credits for the original author were ‘inadvertently omitted’, meaning that the references were left out.
Look at the part of the article on the right, just below the small picture….He says the ‘subeditors must have taken out the quotation marks and the citation at the bottom’!
There is a lesson here for all of us when we are using secondary material – take great care with the way we show quotations accurately and make sure any sources are referenced properly.
We can also have a look at just how closely Raj Persaud’s writing resembled the original piece…

23. Here are the two articles - Raj Persaud’s on the left, and the original work on the right. The Guardian has helpfully marked in blue the words that differed!
So Raj is caught out with very little defence except to claim that is was a referencing error.
Please don’t find yourself in this situation yourself….
But it doesn’t stop with Tony Blair and Raj Persaud. Even so-called experts in plagiarism have got caught out….

24. Plagiarism expert accused of plagiarism!
Here is an example of a supposed expert on plagiarism, who was accused of plagiarising in their report about plagiarism!
Interestingly, and tellingly, it comes down again to an argument about referencing and being accurate about quotations and citations.
In this case, the person accused of plagiarism claimed that a section of their report should have been indented to show that it came from another source.
So plagiarism happens even to famous people and people who should know better. So it is not surprising that it can happen to students, who are much less experienced authors.
Students have to be extra careful, however, because their work is scrutinised very carefully, including by some people who are very hot under the collar about plagiarism and other forms of cheating.
Take a look at this next newspaper clipping, again from the Times Higher…

25. Some people in universities hate students who plagiarise!
There are quite a lot of people in universities who are fed up with reading student essays that have been pasted in from web sites.
They see it as a sign of laziness and of the way they say standards have dropped. You and I know, of course, that being a student nowadays is extremely hard work and students are under a lot of pressure. Also, nowadays students – rightly- use the internet a lot to do research on their subject.
The point is that students have to be extremely careful not to get themselves in a position where because of a bit of carelessness or harrying, they are suddenly accused of cheating and risk having disciplinary action taken against them.
Let’s learn the lessons from Tony Blair, Raj Persaud, and other people who have got into trouble over unintentional plagiarism, and not let it happen to us.
Now so far, we have been talking about how students can get into trouble over plagiarism through taking text directly from books, articles and the web. But there is another situation that can get students into trouble. That is where they help each other with their written work.
Times Higher Educational Supplement, 15 Sept 2006

26. Students helping each other
Group work often means students work closely together
It is fine to collaborate in the preparation for a written assignment
But there must be one author for each piece of writing submitted
Make sure the written work you submit is you own
There are lots of situations where students work together.
They are in groups for practical work and run an experiment together…
They choose the same coursework assignment and do some reading and research together…
One student has drafted an essay or report and gives it to their friend to read….
Students get into trouble when two or more of them submit written work that seems to have only one author. Usually the students try to explain that it was the result of a word-processing error – something got pasted in by mistake, or the wrong version of a document was used. A bit like Raj Persaud!
The bottom line is that the writing you submit for assessment must be your own, even if you have collaborated in some of the work that led up to it. Remember that is it the written document you submit that is scrutinised – not all the work behind the scenes that led to it.
So if you are working with other students to prepare for an assignment, fine. But make sure that you all have a distinct piece of written work to submit, which you have written in your own words, and can take the responsibility and credit for. That is, a piece of work that you are the author of!
And if you give an assignment that you have written to another person before you submit it for assessment, you put yourself at risk if somehow - who knows how – two pieces of work end up being submitted that do not obviously have two separate authors.
Now let’s talk about how these kinds of issues relate to specific types of written work that students have to produce in their courses…

27. Authorship and critical reviews
Critical reviews begin with a secondary source – the ‘target’ article
Decide how much of that you want to include in your review
Where will the rest of the material come from?
Critical reviews have as their starting point an article written by someone else. You obviously don’t want your review to be composed of very large chunks of the original article. As much of it as possible should be in your own words, though you may want to include a few, carefully selected, short quotes, if there is a worthwhile point to be made by using them.
Then where will the rest of the review come from?
Most of course, should be your own words and your own ideas about the strengths and weaknesses of the study, what it tells us, what impact it has had/should have, what the implications of the study are, what should happen next in the light of the study etc.
Where might you run into plagiarism issues?
If you find a review of the article that has already been written – if so, take great care to avoid plagiarising.
If you do some research on the general area of psychology that the target article falls into - again, take care to avoid plagiarising.

28. Authorship and essays
Essays are the most traditional form of university writing
All the points about authorship apply!
Essays are the most traditional form of written assignment. They should be a balance between material from secondary sources, and your own ideas and arguments.
Nearly all of what we talked about in the session on authorship applies to essay writing.
[If you are discussing essays with your students, you can re-title the three ‘tips’ slides to refer to essays and go to those directly from this one]

29. Authorship and problem-based learning (PBL) assignments
PBL is sometimes used to prevent plagiarism
The starting point is a fictional, individual case
Care still needs to be taken
When using the results of your research on the background issues
If you are working on the same case as your friend
PBL assignments are sometimes chosen because they should make plagiarism less likely. They usually involve analysis of an individual case study.
The starting point is an individual case that you have been given.
The case is fictional, so you won’t find it presented on the internet or in a text book (unless your tutor has been rather lazy!).
So you won’t find a finished report on the case in a textbook or on the internet.
However, you still need to make sure you are genuinely the author of the case study you submit.
If you do some background research on the issue portrayed in the case study, for example [eg on asthma, problem drinking, sickle cell disease, or obesity] – you need to take care with how you use that material.
Think about how it applies to the particular case.
Be selective in what material you use.
Remember what we have said about using quotes.
Put as much as possible in your own words.
Focus as much of your assignment as possible on the specific case – don’t turn the assignment into an essay on the general issues portrayed in the case study.

30. Authorship and your dissertation
Don’t get accused of plagiarism in your final piece of work!
Make sure every section is your own writing!
Just because you are describing an original study does not mean you can reproduce someone else’s writing in your introduction or discussion!
Your dissertation is an individual piece of work. You have designed a study, collected and analysed data, and then written it up. You might think there is no question of plagiarism.
But it is very important to have authorship and plagiarism in mind when working on your dissertation.
First of all, this is probably your last piece of work for your degree. If you get into trouble over plagiarism here, it will almost certainly mean the award of your degree is delayed, even if, like Dan Brown, you win your case. That means your applications for jobs or further training will be affected.
Second, it is the most important piece of work you complete at university. In carries more credits than any other module, and it is often looked at very carefully in cases where a person is borderline between passing or failing, or between classes of degree honours. So your project report or dissertation must show you in a good light.
Now you may think that there no question of plagiarism because you are writing about a study that has been conducted by you for the first time. However…
Similar research has probably been done previously, and you have almost certainly been reading one or two key papers on which your study builds.
Don’t just reproduce chunks of those papers in your report. Think about the points we have discussing earlier about secondary material and quotations, even where you obviously, and rightly, want to show how your study is a progression from previous research.
In your introduction and discussion, don’t treat them as essays on the general subject covered by your dissertation. Make them as closely focused as possible on the specific study you have conducted – with the introduction leading into that study, and the discussion leading away from it.

31. Tips on being a genuine author
Think about what your own position (opinion) is before you start writing
When working from other sources:
Read, think, then put the book or journal on one side before writing about it in your work
Think about what you have added to the points made in the source work
Use the source material to support what you are saying in your work – refer to it to make a point of your own
[These final slides should apply to every type of assignment and are intended to drive home the important messages of the talk. You could re-title them to refer to the type of assignment you want to focus on, eg ‘Tips on being the author of your essay’]
Now we are reaching the end, and lets just spend a few moments thinking about how we can improve ourselves as authors as university.
Keep the issue of authorship in your minds, even before you begin an assignment.
Think about it when you are preparing to write the assignment – think about the key decisions an author makes, and think what decision you will be making to qualify as the author of your work.
Then when you have done your research, gathered together your material from the various secondary sources, think about how you are going to use that material in order to enhance your role as author.
Most importantly, think about the points you want to make, in your own words, and how the other material – facts, evidence, findings, theory etc – can be used to support the things you want to say.

32. More tips… When including quotations from other work:
Think about what point you are making with the quote
Use the quotation to make a point of your own
Keep the quotation as short as possible
Make sure the other person’s words are in quotation marks
Make sure you indicate the source
We have talked a lot about using quotations. These are the key points:
Be accurate in the way you show what is someone else’s words and what is your own words.
Make sure there is an item on your reference list giving the sources of every quote.
Don’t include quotations for the sake of it, or to fill up space on the page.
Use them to make, or reinforce, a point of your own, and be clear to yourself what that point is.

33. Final tips… When you think you have finished, ask yourself…
What decisions did I take?
How many of the sentences did I compose?
Can I take responsibility for this writing?
Can I really take the credit for it?
If the answers are not clear, perhaps this version is not your final draft…
Then when you think you have completed the final draft, there are a few questions you can ask yourself about authorship to help you decide whether this really is the final draft.
Read the draft and ask yourself these questions.
If you are not clear how the writing reflects the decision you took yourself as an author…
Or if not enough of the sentences that make up the essay were really actually composed by you - that is, where you actually had to decide what words to use and how to put them together (and I recommend that about 90% of the sentences should be like that)…
Or if you feel that you have not done enough work as an author to take the responsibility for the writing, and not enough to be able to take the credit for the writing….
Then perhaps this is not your final draft!
Perhaps it is a draft that brings together the material you want to use, so that it represents the end of your preparation and research on the subject. But you still have to make the special contribution that will qualify you as the author of the piece of writing.
So think about your role as an author, think about the decisions an author has to take, and sit down to write another draft that you will be the author of.

34. The ‘after’ questionnaire
Write the number from the first questionnaire in the top right corner
When completed, pass to the end of the row for collection
Thank you again for that!
Thank you very much for listening to me, and I hope what we have been talking about will be useful to you.
I mentioned at the beginning that this work on authorship is part of a larger project, and we are evaluating it for further development.
I am passing out now a questionnaire to collect information for that, and some feedback from you about how helpful you think it was.
You will remember the questionnaire you completed at the beginning of the session had a number on it that your wrote down on a separate piece of paper.
Please write that number in the top right hand corner of this questionnaire. The point of numbering the questionnaires is so that we can look at how things have changed from before the session and after. It is not to identify any individuals. We have no way of knowing what questionnaires came from which students, so the questionnaires are completely anonymous.
We will spend just a few moments for people to complete this end-of-session questionnaire.
When you have finished yours, pass it down to the end of the row.
Now I can collect the piles form the end of each row.
Thank you very much for doing that. This feedback from students is an extremely important part of how we develop ways to support students.

35. Websites on writing at university
The Assessment Plus project web site, with many downloadable resources for student and staff on writing for assessment:
An interactive site on essay writing at James Cook University, Australia:
A site at the Open University with advice on writing and assessment generally:
A site at the University of Teesside with a wide range of advice on essays, exams, academic writing and plagiarism:
The Royal Literary Fund’s essay writing advice:
A guide to using English for academic purposes:
The Institute of Education’s site with advice on writing essays, reports, critical reviews and dissertations:
(From Norton et al. (2006). Writing essays in higher education: a guide for students by students. Assessment Plus Project)

36. Books about writing for students
Clanchy, J. (1997). Essay writing for students: a practical guide. Melbourne: Addison Wesley Longman.
Cottrell, S., (2003) The Study Skills Handbook. (2nd Ed.) Palgrave.
Creme, P. & Lea, M.R. (1997). Writing at university: a guide for students, 2nd ed. Buckingham: Open University.
Fairbairn, G.J. & Fairbairn, S. (2001). Reading at University: A Guide for Students. Buckingham: Open University.
Fairbairn, G.J. & Winch, C. (1996). Reading, Writing and Reasoning: A Guide for Students. Buckingham: Open University.
Greetham, B. (2001). How to write better essays. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Hennessy, B. (2002). Writing an Essay: Simple Techniques to Transform Your Coursework and Examinations (Student Handbooks). Oxford: How To Books.
Levin, P. (2004). Write Great Essays! Reading and Essay Writing for Undergraduates and Taught Postgraduates. Buckingham: Open University.
Lewis, M., & Reinders, H., (2003) Study Skills for Speakers of English as a Second Language. Palgrave.
Peck, J. & Coyle, M. (2005). The student’s guide to writing: grammar, punctuation and spelling. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Peck, J. & Coyle, M. (2005). Write it right: a handbook for students. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Redman, P. (2001). Good Essay Writing: a Social Sciences Guide. London: Sage.
Turley, R.M. (2000). Writing Essays: A Guide for Students in English and the Humanities. London: Routledge.

37. Guides to writing for psychology students
Collins, S.C. & Kneale, P. (2001). Study skills for psychology students: a practical guide. Chapter 9. Effective essay skills.
Heffernan, T. M., (2006). A Student’s Guide to Studying Psychology. (3rd Ed.) Psychology Press.
Parrott, L. (1999). How to write psychology papers (2nd Ed). Harlow, Longman.
Scott, J. M., Koch, R., Scott, G. M., & Garrison, S. M., (2002) The Psychology Student Writer’s Manual. Prentice Hall.
Stevenson, A. (2001). Studying Psychology. Palgrave.