This lesson starts with a simple question: "Who knows the most about (topic of your choice)?" In my experience doing this lesson with first year students, a majority of students will identify personal experience as knowing the "most" at the outset. It is common for them to say something along the lines of: No one understands what it’s like to be homeless more than someone who has been through it. Starting from that firm conviction, this lesson is designed to help students think about different ways of “knowing” and what secondary sources (particularly scholarly) are able to accomplish in providing analysis, context, and scope. Learning outcomes: Students will be able to articulate multiple ways in which authority can be ascribed [Authority is Constructed and Contextual]Students will be able to identify primary and secondary sources / scholarly and popular sources and how they are linked to each other [Scholarship is Conversation]Students will seek a variety of source formats and perspectives in their own work [Information has value]

An explanation of different kinds of authority that students might recognize in a piece of information accompanied by a list of articles about global warming that appeal to, invoke, or otherwise discuss these authorities.  Students should skim one or more of the articles, answer some questions about them, and discuss their ideas with their peers.

The following activity is meant to demonstrate the concepts of authorship and authority to first year writing students. Students will use their prior knowledge and everyday experiences with subpar information to draw parallels between evaluating academic and popular sources.

The assignment prompt and description, Exploring Expertise, is attached. It is a writing prompt for a short assignment. The prompt can be adapted to fit different non-writing performance tasks, however, including discussion or in-class individual/ small group activities. Students are provided a scenario wherein they must research the names of experts quoted in different online news articles (topic: prescription drug abuse). They must show that they have researched the "expert." Learning Outcome - Explore a source of information in order to determine the validity and credibility of their claims on a particular topic