IS143 Essay

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IS143 Essay
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Placing the IS143 essay in context

• Possibly your first essay of your university
  career
• 5000 words length
• Handed out week 5 Michaelmas Term
• Submitted week 5 Lent Term
• Essay plan submitted before Christmas

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Constraints

• Limited size
• Limited time scale
• Topic to be based on a given list

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Feedback

• You will receive feedback on this essay
• Reviews are an important feature of academic life
• Everybody can benefit from feedback

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What the IS143 essay is not

• An exercise is empirical data collection and
  analysis
• A PhD thesis
• An MSc essay
• An exercise in journalism / description

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What are we looking for

• A Marking scheme is provided
• Academic criteria apply
• Referencing the relevant literature
• Analysing the topic critically
• Supporting your position

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Some key points

• An essay that has an Information Systems focus
• Make reasonable assumptions about what the reader
  already knows
• Tell a story

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More key points

• Convey your understanding of the knowledge and
  state of debate about a topic
• Make a point
• Assess the literature
• Reach a defendable conclusion

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Focus

• Having a well defined topic helps you decide
  whether to include or exclude something
• Leaving things out is often the most painful /
  creative aspect
• Demonstrate your understanding by not describing
  everything youve read

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A useful tip

• You should be able to summarise your story by
  completing the phrase In this essay I will
  argue that...

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How to find a good topic

• A good research question has an answer that is
  not obvious
• It should be possible to argue convincingly for a
  point and its opposite and not sit on the fence
• The only way to determine which is the case will
  be through the presentation of supporting evidence

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Moving from a topic to a question

• Dont just present the issues affecting a topic
• Present an argument for which issues
• are most important
• are most likely to apply in practice
• offer most opportunity for contribution

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Supporting your argument

• Use evidence to support your argument
• Draw on relevant literature
• Special lecture on referencing material

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Why does your evidence support your argument?

• Could it be used to support the opposite opinion?
• How do you know that your evidence is of high
  quality?

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Your discussion / conclusion

• Not a summary
• Your distinctive message clearly stated
• An answer to the question you posed at the
  beginning
• Limitations of your work
• Implications for theory and / or practice
• Suggestions for further research

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Using theoretical concepts / arguments

• Two kinds of theoretical arguments

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Big theories

• An encompassing framework to work within
• Seek to explain a range of related phenomena
• Introduce concepts and linkages between them

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An example Social construction of technology

• Concepts of relevant social groups, interpretive
  flexibility
• Linkages in terms of how relevant social groups
  seek to limit interpretive flexibility

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Little theories

• A conceptual lens to view the situation
• Introduce refined concepts which have been
  discussed in the literature
• Dont (necessarily) introduce linkages between
  concepts

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An example Reverse salient

• A particular idea (the problem that lots of
  people are addressing)
• Discussed and criticised in the literature

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Marking scheme

• Critical discussion of topic (15)
• Use of literature (20)
• Writing and presentation (10)
• Structure of argument (5)

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Critical understanding of topic (15)

• Excellent answer
• Excellent understanding and exposition of
  relevant issues insightful and well informed,
  clear evidence of independent thought good
  awareness of nuances and complexities
  appropriate use of theory

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Critical understanding of topic

• Poor answer
• Establishes a few relevant points but superficial
  and confused much irrelevant material very
  little or no understanding of the issues raised
  by the topic or topic misunderstood content
  largely irrelevant no choice or use of theory
  essay almost wholly descriptive no grasp of
  analysis with many errors and/or omissions

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Use of literature (20)

• Excellent answer
• Excellent use of literature to support argument
  diverse sources used
• Poor answer
• Relies on a superficial repeat of class notes

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Writing and presentation (10)

• Excellent answer
• A delight to read meaningful diagrams properly
  formatted references
• Poor answer
• Frequent errors needs urgent attention many
  meaningless diagrams negligible referencing

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Structure of argument (5)

• Excellent answer
• Arguments clearly structured and logically
  developed sensible weighting of parts
• Poor answer
• Arguments often confused and undeveloped no
  logical structure very poor organisation of
  material

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Essay topics
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Criteria

• No fixed list of questions
• Choose a topic related to the course

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Course contents

• The information society  
• Theories of technology and society
• Networks
• Internet names
• Regulating data flows and civil liberties
• Privacy
• IT and gender
• Digital divide

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Course contents (2)

• E-government
• ICT and development
• Intellectual property rights
• The open source movement
• File sharing systems
• Encryption and communications surveillance

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Broad themes

• Technology and
• society
• policy
• governance
• inequality
• economy

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Remember

• We dont want just description
• We dont want simple arguments
• Should be able to complete I will argue that

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Example interesting research questions

• Technology and society
• Why is the internet seen as such a driver of
  societal change?
• I will argue that the internet is seen as such a
  driver of change because
• What are the key factors affecting the take up of
  the information society?
• I will argue that the key factors affecting the
  take up of the information society are

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• Technology and policy
• How should you balance the needs of e-commerce
  with those of law enforcement agencies?
• How would you balance the benefits of anonymous
  communications online with the risks?

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• Technology and governance
• What can be done about how the international
  nature of the internet affects ways of regulating
  it?
• In what ways can the internet enhance democracy?

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• Technology and inequality
• What steps could be taken to address the digital
  divide in your country?
• Do positive role models help overcome gender
  discrimination in IT?

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• Technology and the economy
• In what ways are file sharing systems changing
  the business models of the entertainment
  industry?
• Does open source software present a viable model
  for the future?

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• Remember, these are only suggestions
• Might trigger ideas
• Plenty of scope for your own questions
• Need to have a plan in place for the end of term

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Process

• Which of the topics am I most interested in?
• What is it about this issue that I find
  interesting?
• What good questions can I ask about this issue?

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Further discussion

• Discuss possible ideas with lecturers
• Office hours
• E-mail us

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Referencing
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Writing academic pieces

• A piece of prose with
• an argument
• a beginningin the literature
• a middlewhere you present your argument
• an endwhere you establish a contribution
• proper references

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Journalistic piece

• Written for a nonspecialist audience
• Purpose is to describe and report on something
  that has happened
• Uncriticalbased on official reports and biased
  accounts

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A management consultants report

• Purposeto sell more consultancy services or
  solve a oneoff problem
• Makes firm recommendations
• Style is management orientedlists and bullet
  points

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An academic piece

• Addresses a particular research question
• Written in prose with supporting diagrams and
  figures
• Gains its credibility in terms of its
  relationship to a wider academic literature

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On referencing

• Why use references?
• What is meant by proper references?
• What sort of references should I be using and how
  many?
• How can I manage the process of using references?

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Complications

• Special references
• Different types of reference
• Plagiarism

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Why use references?

• Cynical answer 1
• Because use of the literature is part of the
  marking scheme

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Use of literature (20)

• Excellent use of literature to support argument
  /points
• Good use of literature to support arguments
• Use of standard literature to support argument
• Use of secondary literature to support arguments
• Relies on a superficial repeat of class notes
• No significant reference to literature

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• Cynical answer 2
• Because otherwise people will assume you have
  made things up
• If you take an idea or data from somewhere, refer
  to the source of the idea

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• Teachers pet answer
• Because it is an important skill that all
  students should have

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• Not reinventing the wheel answer
• Because it shows that you know about previous
  discussions on the topic

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• Intellectual strength answer
• Because it shows that you have grounded your
  argument in the existing literature

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• Competence in the field argument
• Because you need to show that you know the field
  before you can make credible claims about it (PhD
  literature review chapter)

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What is meant by proper referencing?

• Marking the main text with a reference to where
  ideas were taken from
• Providing a complete list of sources at the end
  of the paper

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Different styles for marking the main text
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• Example from Ciborra C U (1999) Notes on
  improvisation and time in organizations.
  Accounting, management and information
  technologies 7794.
• At a closer look, this picture of organizational
  decision making, which seems to rule out
  improvisation completely, is due to a bundle of
  assumptions embedded in a particular perspective
  of analyzing and designing organizations, the
  information-processing perspective (Galbraith,
  1977). The adoption of other perspectives (e.g.
  the one which looks at organizations as
  interpretative systemssee Daft Weick, 1984),
  coupled with the study of the organizing
  processes which take place daily in any work
  organization, would delineate a quite different
  picture, where procedures and plans are abstract
  and distant constructs, while improvisation is
  real and delivers (Crossan, Lane, Klus White,
  1996).

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• Example from Ciborra C U (1999) Notes on
  improvisation and time in organizations.
  Accounting, management and information
  technologies 7794.
• At a closer look, this picture of organizational
  decision making, which seems to rule out
  improvisation completely, is due to a bundle of
  assumptions embedded in a particular perspective
  of analyzing and designing organizations, the
  information-processing perspective 3. The
  adoption of other perspectives (e.g. the one
  which looks at organizations as interpretative
  systemssee 4), coupled with the study of the
  organizing processes which take place daily in
  any work organization, would delineate a quite
  different picture, where procedures and plans are
  abstract and distant constructs, while
  improvisation is real and delivers 5.

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• Example from Ciborra C U (1999) Notes on
  improvisation and time in organizations.
  Accounting, management and information
  technologies 7794.
• At a closer look, this picture of organizational
  decision making, which seems to rule out
  improvisation completely, is due to a bundle of
  assumptions embedded in a particular perspective
  of analyzing and designing organizations, the
  information-processing perspective3. The adoption
  of other perspectives (e.g. the one which looks
  at organizations as interpretative systemssee4),
  coupled with the study of the organizing
  processes which take place daily in any work
  organization, would delineate a quite different
  picture, where procedures and plans are abstract
  and distant constructs, while improvisation is
  real and delivers5.

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What is needed at the end of the document?

• As a minimum

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For books

• Authors surname
• Authors initials
• Title
• Place of publication
• Publisher
• Year of publication

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For journal articles

• Authors surname
• Authors initials
• Date
• Title of article
• Title of journal
• Volume and issue number
• Pages

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For web sites

• Author details (if no author, then use anonymous
  or name of organisation)
• Date of page (if given)
• Title of page
• URL
• When you visited the website

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• Similar rules apply for chapters in books, edited
  books etc.
• http//www.lse.ac.uk/library/insktr/citing_referen
  cing.htm

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References or bibliography

• Some people differentiate between
• References List of everything cited in the main
  text
• Bibliography Everything read (i.e. references
  plus other material)
• I try to refer to everything from the
  bibliography in the main text

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Why is all this information needed?

• To allow the reader to find the materials you
  refer to
• To use their knowledge of the field and its
  literature to judge your contribution

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Finding materials

• Start with some key articles
• Follow up the references they use
• To find the key references try
• The course reading list
• Library journal databases
• Google scholar

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What sort of sources should I be using?
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Books

• Provide good introduction to topics
• Provide detailed accounts of case studies
• Develop sophisticated theories and arguments

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Textbooks are a special case

• Statement of conventional wisdom, not leading
  edge thought

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Some pathetic excuses

• Im doing something really new, there are no
  books on the topic
• My topic is changing so quickly that all the
  books I can find are hopelessly out of date

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Response

• There is nothing new under the sun
• Academic work is cumulative

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Journal articles

• More likely to be uptodate
• Can be more focussed
• More of them and easier to access (ejournals)
• Varying quality and consistency

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Some pathetic excuses

• Im doing something really new, there are no
  journal articles on the topic
• My topic is changing so quickly that all the
  journal articles I can find are hopelessly out of
  date

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Response

• Again, we wont be convinced by this argument

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Web pages

• Easily accessible
• Often not refereed
• Can be source of good information or corporate
  hype or loony statements
• Limited back catalogue

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Websites of governments and other official bodies

• Official documents available for free
• Often contain excellent material (data, opinions,
  records of discussions)

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Wikipedia?

• Treat like a textbook
• May contain errors
• Topic rather than disciplinary focus may cause
  problems

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Newspapers

• Easily searchable
• Good source for historical information and
  chronology
• Limited back catalogue

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How many references should I have?

• Enough to support your argument
• Judge by journal articles (15)
• Quality and depth of reading counts

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How do I manage this?

• Endnote software package and Word
• http//www.lse.ac.uk/library/guides/Endnote/Endnot
  e.htm

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Features of Endnote

• A database of things youve read
• Automatically formats in text citations and
  provides a full list of references at the end of
  the document

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Complications

• Ive read something that refers to something
  else, which do I cite?
• Both, but clearly state which one youve read

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There are three main ways of citing in text

• Ciborra (1999) argues that ...
• Here is a paragraph of ideas Ive read about
  (Ciborra, 1999 Whitley, 1984)
• This view of organizational decision making is
  due to a bundle of assumptions embedded in a
  particular perspective of analyzing and designing
  organizations (Ciborra, 1999, p. 81)

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Plagiarism
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• This view of organizational decision making is
  due to a bundle of assumptions embedded in a
  particular perspective of analyzing and designing
  organizations

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School definition

• All work for classes and seminars as well as
  scripts (which include, for example,
  examinations, essays, dissertations and any other
  work, including computer programs) must be the
  student's own work. The definition of a student's
  own work shall include work produced by
  collaboration expressly permitted by the
  department or institute concerned. Quotations
  must be placed properly within quotation marks
  and must be cited fully and all paraphrased
  material must be acknowledged completely.
  Infringing this requirement, whether deliberately
  or not, or the deliberate or accidental passing
  off of the work of others as the work of the
  student is plagiarism.

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Paraphrasing

• Your own rendition of essential information and
  ideas expressed by someone else presented in a
  new form

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Quoting

• Only three occasions for using a quotation
• Where the original author has written something
  more elegantly than you could ever write it. For
  example, poetry.
• Where you need to prove that it was a particular
  author who said those words. You should try to
  include the page reference on such occasions.
• Where there is no reasonable way of paraphrasing,
  such as when quoting lists or formulae.

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Paraphrasing (2)

• This is a valuable skill because
• It is better than quoting information from an
  undistinguished passage
• It helps you control the temptation to quote too
  much
• The mental processes required for successful
  paraphrasing helps you to grasp the full meaning
  of the original

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Six steps to effective paraphrasing

• 1) Read the original passage until you understand
  its full meaning
• 2) Set aside the original, and write your
  paraphrase
• 3) Jot down a few words below your paraphrase to
  remind you later how you plan to use this
  material. Write a keyword or phrase to indicate
  the subject of the paraphrase

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• 4) Check your version with the original to make
  sure that your version accurately expresses all
  the essential information in a new form
• 5) Use quotation marks to identify any terms or
  phrases that you have borrowed exactly from the
  source
• 6) Record the source (including the page) so that
  you can credit it easily if you decide to
  incorporate the material into your paper.

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An example
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Original

• Students frequently overuse direct quotation in
  taking notes, and as a result they overuse
  quotations in the final paper. Probably only
  about 10 of your final paper should appear as
  directly quoted matter. Therefore, you should
  strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing
  of source materials while taking notes. Lester,
  James D. Writing research papers, 2nd Edition,
  (1976) 4647

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A legitimate paraphrase

• In research papers students often quote
  excessively, failing to keep quoted material down
  to a desirable level. Since the problem usually
  originates during note taking, it is essential to
  minimize the material recorded verbatim (Lester
  4647).

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A plagiarized version

• Students often use too many direct quotations
  when they take notes, resulting in too many of
  them in the final research paper. In fact,
  probably only about 10 of the final copy should
  consist of directly quoted material. So it is
  important to limit the amount of source material
  copied while taking notes.

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For further information, go to

• http//owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_
  paraphr.html

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Anti-plagiarism checking

• All submitted essays are checked against various
  online anti-plagiarism services
• Helpful for illustrating what we expect and why

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Some examples
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The new JISC interface
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Appropriate quotations
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Whose conclusions?
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Your argument?
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Using a case study?
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The perfect literature review
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Paraphrasing or copying?
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Other peoples lists
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Reusing your own work
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Your argument?
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Appropriate reuse
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Any queries?

• If you have any queries about plagiarism or
  paraphrasing, you must speak to one of the course
  organisers before you submit your work

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Other useful resources

• http//learning.lse.ac.uk/
• http//learning.lse.ac.uk/detail.asp?EventID20
  (Introduction to essay writing)
• http//learning.lse.ac.uk/detail.asp?EventID22
  (Effective reading strategies)

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