InfoLit Competencies for College Honors Students

Type of Presentation

Panel (1 hour and 15 minutes presentation total for two or more presenters)

Target Audience

Higher Education

Location

Room 217

Proposal

Students in college honors programs arrive with a mixed bag of information literacy skills. They may have taken AP or IB courses in high school, but their familiarity with three particular information literacy competencies – how authority is constructed, research as inquiry, scholarship as conversation – within their discipline is often scant. In this panel, the presenters (from information literacy and composition) will explore a two-step strategy for helping honors students make that leap from exemplary student to novice scholar over a one-semester course. The first step is an examination of genres within a discipline in which students understand how knowledge is constructed and presented. This can begin with identifying genres students encounter in their major courses. For example, biology students might be familiar with lab reports. In analyzing lab reports, students identify the rhetorical situation (documentation of experimental results conducted by a scientist at a given time/place), analyze patterns to determine rhetorical strategies (reporting of experimental results in a systematic format) and interpret their use (the systematic process identifying action and reaction). The second step is an exploration of how these discrete genres are distributed by a variety of means in the discipline (such as articles in trade and scholarly publications or statistics in science reports). These two steps help students develop skills to locate credible resources within their field. By examining genres and their role in establishing disciplinary ethos, students begin to understand how authority is constructed, research as inquiry, and scholarship as conversation.

Presentation Description

In this panel, we explore a two-step strategy for helping honors students make the leap from exemplary student to novice scholar. The first step is an examination of genres within a discipline in which students understand how knowledge is constructed and presented. The second step is an exploration of how discrete genres are distributed by a variety of means. This process helps students locate credible resources and understand how authority is constructed, research as inquiry, and scholarship as conversation.

Session Goals

n/a

Keywords

interdisciplinary composition information literacy research authority construction resources

Publication Type and Release Option

Presentation (Open Access)

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Sep 15th, 2:45 PM Sep 15th, 4:00 PM

InfoLit Competencies for College Honors Students

Room 217

Students in college honors programs arrive with a mixed bag of information literacy skills. They may have taken AP or IB courses in high school, but their familiarity with three particular information literacy competencies – how authority is constructed, research as inquiry, scholarship as conversation – within their discipline is often scant. In this panel, the presenters (from information literacy and composition) will explore a two-step strategy for helping honors students make that leap from exemplary student to novice scholar over a one-semester course. The first step is an examination of genres within a discipline in which students understand how knowledge is constructed and presented. This can begin with identifying genres students encounter in their major courses. For example, biology students might be familiar with lab reports. In analyzing lab reports, students identify the rhetorical situation (documentation of experimental results conducted by a scientist at a given time/place), analyze patterns to determine rhetorical strategies (reporting of experimental results in a systematic format) and interpret their use (the systematic process identifying action and reaction). The second step is an exploration of how these discrete genres are distributed by a variety of means in the discipline (such as articles in trade and scholarly publications or statistics in science reports). These two steps help students develop skills to locate credible resources within their field. By examining genres and their role in establishing disciplinary ethos, students begin to understand how authority is constructed, research as inquiry, and scholarship as conversation.