Struggling with Sources: Collaborative Research on Use and Engagement with Sources: A Post-Convention Workshop
Type of Presentation
Workshop
Type of Presentation
Workshop (1 hour and 15 minutes)
Target Audience
Higher Education
Location
Room 1005
Relevance
N/A
Proposal
See presentation description.
Presentation Description
Workshop participants will be introduced to methods of citation context analysis developed in the Citation Project {www.citationproject. net/} and will engage in hands-on practice of these methods. This form of textual and source analysis reveals how effectively students are understanding and using the sources they cite; it serves as a valuable means of faculty development; it can be used in library instruction, for course placement, and for program assessment; and most of all, it can be used to develop pedagogy that teaches students how to engage with their research sources rather than plagiarize from them. Participants in this workshop will also have the possibility of participating in ongoing Citation Project research. The Citation Project is a multi-institution research project whose purpose is to compile an aggregate description of how college students use the research sources that they cite. Studying papers gathered from a variety of colleges, researchers read the papers and their sources as they pursue answers to a variety of questions, such as what types of sources students choose; the location in the source of the cited material; the frequency with which students use quotation, paraphrase, patch writing, and summary; whether this choice correlates with the difficulty level or genre of the source they are citing; and whether any of these four strategies tend to be used in the early or later part of the student’s paper. The data gathered from this research furthers our understanding of underlying issues in students’ source-based writing, so that more effective pedagogy can be developed. Currently, writing faculty and librarians introducing students to research and source-based writing focus most of their attention on instruction in finding and evaluating sources, and in understanding and using citation systems. Project Information Literacy content analysis {http://projectinfolit.org/pdfs/PIL_Handout_Study_finalvJuly_2010.pdf} of research assignment handouts from 28 US colleges reveals an overwhelming focus on “how-to procedures and conventions for preparing a final product for submission, [rather] than guidance about conducting research and finding and using information in the digital age.” Lead researcher Alison Head observes {http://projectinfolit. org/st/howard-jamieson.asp} that the handouts also “tended to emphasize the disciplinary recourse that instructors would take against students who were caught in acts of academic dishonesty.” This research parallels Citation Project conclusions {http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/04/11/study_of_first_year_students_research_papers_finds_little_evidenc e_they_understand_sources} that students’ instructional needs are far more complex than we have imagined, calling for fresh, nuanced instruction in critical reading, building arguments from syntheses of sources, and the rhetorical uses of citation. This workshop is designed to give participants a deeper understanding of what happens in student source-based writing that they can use to develop that nuanced instruction.
Publication Type and Release Option
Presentation (Open Access)
Recommended Citation
Jamieson, Sandra and Serviss,, Tricia C., "Struggling with Sources: Collaborative Research on Use and Engagement with Sources: A Post-Convention Workshop" (2011). Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy. 104.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gaintlit/2011/2011/104
Struggling with Sources: Collaborative Research on Use and Engagement with Sources: A Post-Convention Workshop
Room 1005
See presentation description.
