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This guide details effective strategies by Kevin Catalano and Roberta Tipton to improve students' writing skills through research. By integrating information literacy topics and planning classroom activities, they facilitate a student-centered learning environment. The authors explore the use of citation managers like RefWorks and the challenges of meta-searching. With a comprehensive assessment approach including pretest and posttest evaluations, they demonstrate successful outcomes in fostering confident writers and autonomous researchers. This course framework can be adapted by educators seeking to enhance their teaching methodologies.
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Improving Writing through Research Helping Students Become Autonomous Researchers and More Confident Writers Kevin Catalano and Roberta Tipton February 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!