Improving Writing through Research

Helping Students Become Autonomous Researchers and More

Confident Writers

Kevin Catalano and Roberta TiptonFebruary 25, 2009

How We Planned the Course Kevin wrote down his steps for teaching

students to write in English 102 Bobbie wrote down the information literacy

topics we had discussed Kevin put the information literacy topics

where he thought they would best fit. Don’t turn away from changing your order;

it can lead to interesting results!

RefWorks: Yes or No?

Students love it It takes lots of class time and

explanations It may be overkill for the class project,

but it is an investment in future writing/research projects for the students.

Pros and Cons of Meta-Searching

Students love it. It can be completely overwhelming for

someone beginning to weave research into writing—too much and too unstructured.

Students must have a citation manager like RefWorks, EndNote, or Zotero in order to use Google Scholar or Rutgers Searchlight efficiently.

Weaving the Elements Together We planned out each class and where

we thought research would fit. Bobbie taught two full classes at Dana

Library, taught pieces of others (15 to 30 minutes as needed), and attended still others as an observer/participant—6 classes in all.

Research materials placed in Blackboard

A Tour of the Blackboard Site

Dana Class Guide to Ishmael RefWorks hints The Publication Continuum Inspiring quotes for writing/research Plagiarism/documentation guide Three Ways to Organize

Research/Writing

Counting Up: Assessing the Students

MLA Format Rubrics SRL Survey: Pretest and Posttest

Rubrics for MLA Format

Two rubrics developed Librarian contributed points to grade

for annotated bibliography and final paper

Scoring the Pre- and Posttests

Kevin chose 15 questions specific to writing and research

Bobbie scored pretests and posttests Results were encouraging!