english composition students: how are they using their sources?
DESCRIPTION
Radcliff, S., & Wong, E. (2012). English Composition students: How are they using their sources? Paper presented at CARL Conference 2012, San Diego, CA, 5-7 April. Researchers collected papers from eight sections of English Composition at a liberal arts college and analyzed and compared sources listed in bibliographies to sources cited within the paper to see if all sources listed in the bibliographies were cited. Researchers tabulated how sources were used, including paraphrasing, stand-alone quotes and quotes either preceded by an introductory comment or followed by analysis or both. The goal was to discover how students were (or were not) using sources listed in their bibliographies and to determine the degree to which students were integrating information from their sources into their writing. Researchers analyzed the bibliographies by type of source and counted instances of un-cited data in papers. The overall purpose of the study was to help both composition instructors and librarians adjust their instructional strategies to address the problems highlighted by the study which included: Use of stand-alone quotes, use of un-cited data and inclusion of sources in bibliographies that were not cited in the paper. This research project was also an excellent vehicle for partnering with English composition faculty to learn how library instruction and composition instruction interact and overlap. The research highlighted for both how the boundary between library and English composition instruction has gaps that need to be filled by changing instructional methods and by creating more cooperation between librarians and composition faculty. Various ideas on how to accomplish this are included in the presentation.TRANSCRIPT
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English composition students: How are sources used in their
papers
Presenters: Sharon Radcliff, Elise Y Wong
Saint Mary’s College of California
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In-text citations and bibliographies
Types of sources used in bibliographies
Paraphrasing vs. quoting
How quotations are integrated
How Composition students cite and integrate sources
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Assess students' citing behaviors
Examine how sources are integrated
Evaluate students' citation performance
Students’ writing proficiency and faculty expectation
Compare key data to pilot study
Our study objectives
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Catholic, Lasallian, liberal arts college Undergraduate and graduate schools Total enrollment: 3917 Total full time students: 3407 Number of full-time faculty: 192 Student-faculty ratio: 13:1
About Saint Mary’s College
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First generation college: 36% traditional UG Female: 61%; Male: 39% Minority: 48%, White: 46%, Others: 6% 87% freshmen from California Tuition and fees: $37,150 % of full-time undergraduate receiving
financial aid: 72%
Who are SMC students?
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Learning outcomes for ENG 5 includes:
Write analytical, evaluative, and argumentative essays
Employ research skills in writing
Support and cite argument with sources
SMC Composition program
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Learning goal: Information Evaluation and Research
Practices
Learning outcome: students will integrate and cite evidence
appropriately with increasing proficiency
SMC new core curriculum Fall 2012 supported our study
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Harvey, M. (2003). The nuts & bolts of college writing. Indianapolis :Hackett.
Hubbuch, S. (2005). Writing research papers across the curriculum (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth.
Quaratiello, A., & Devine, J. (2011). The college student’s research companion (5th ed.). New York: Neal-Schuman.
Shields, M. (2010). Essay writing: A student guide. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
First we researched best practices
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Summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting Paraphrasing, less quoting
Use quotes to support your arguments
Introduce and analyze your sources
Best practices include:
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Nienhaus, B. (2004). Helping students improve citation performance. Business Communication Quarterly, 67 (3), 337-348.
Robillard, A. (2006). Young scholars affecting composition: A challenge to disciplinary citation practices. College English, 68 (3), 253-270.
Shi, L. (2010). Textual appropriation and citing behaviors of university undergraduates. Applied Linguistics, 31 (1), 1-24.
Shi, L. (2011). Common knowledge, learning, and citation practices in university writing. Research in the Teaching of English, 45 (3), 308-334.
Studies that examine students' citation practices/citing behaviors
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Good citation practices are essential
Classroom discussion on citing
Instructor’s assignment requirements
Highlights from the studies:
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Students’ motivation to cite/not to cite
◦ The notion of common knowledge
◦ Knowledge acquired from classroom learning
◦ Unidentifiable prior learning
Instructors' evaluation of students' citation practices
Highlights continued
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SMC Librarians have a long history of collaboration with the English Composition department.
SMC librarians provide some support for Composition 4 and traditionally do an instruction session for every section of Composition 5, (25-28 sections)
Background
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Library instruction for Composition 4 and 5 includes a tutorial with quizzes and pre & post tests on various topics, includes material on citing. (This tutorial is currently being revised.)
Composition 4 classes receive an in person session only by request; Composition 5 are strongly encouraged to have one. Almost all do so.
Background
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SMC librarians have done two major bibliographic studies and one pilot internal citation study over the past 8 years.
First study was done on 9 Composition sections in 2004; the second was done on 13 sections in 2006.
In the second study, faculty assignments were collected and evaluated and faculty were interviewed.
Background
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Reference materials 6%
Books 28%
Journals 8%
Magazines 9%
Newspapers 21%
Web sites 22%
Other 6%
Bibliographic Study Results 2006
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Instruction: librarians can use their expertise on research methods, processes and sources to teach the research component of the course.
Benefits of collaboration
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Research: provides both composition faculty and librarians with assessment student performance in various areas and thus on how well existing teaching methods are working
Collaboration
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Pilot study of 25 papers conducted in 2008.
This study focuses on Standard 3 of ACRL information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education:
The information literate student evaluates information and its sources critically and incorporates selected information into his or her knowledge base and value system.
Current study: 105 papers were collected from 7 Composition classes at the end of Spring 2010. (20 papers were discarded because they had no bibliography attached).
Methodology
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85 papers were analyzed for:
◦ bibliographic content
◦ internal citation practice (paraphrasing vs. quoting)
◦ percentage of bibliography cited in paper
◦ percentage of citable material in paper cited
Methodology continued
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Quotations were analyzed into three categories:
IQ: Quote is preceded by an introduction
QA: Quote is followed by analysis
IQA: Quote has both an introduction and analysis.
More methodology
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44%
30%
3%
22%
1%
citation types
websites
mag/journal
film/media
books
interviews/surveys
Bibliography citation types
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Current Study
Pilot Study 2006 study
Books 22% 24% 32% (includesreference)
Websites 44% 34% 22%
Media 3% 2.6% N/A
Magazine/journals/News
30% 28.2% 38%
Interview/survey 1% 9.8% Other:6%
Bibliographic citation types
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58%
42%
use of quotes
paraphrasing
Use of quotes vs. paraphrasing
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10%20%
30%40%
50%60%
70%80%
90%100%
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
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Y axis = number of papers X axis percent of citations that are quotations
Frequency of quoting
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10%20%
30%40%
50%60%
70%80%
90%100%
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
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X axis= percentage of citations that are paraphrases
Y axis= number of papers
Frequency of paraphrasing
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Current Study Pilot Study
Percentage of Quotes 58% 57%
Percentage of Paraphrasing
42% 43%
Quoting /paraphrasing
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Quoting contexts
20%
14%
13%
53%
intro comments / IQ
analysis /QA
quote hasno intro oranalysis (Q None)
quote hasanalysis andintro (IQA)
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78%
22%
tot bib cits
Bib uncited
Percent of bibliography cited in paper
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0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
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X axis= number of papersY axis= Percentage of bibliography cited in paper
Frequency of bibliography cited
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14%
86%
percent uncitedpercent cited
Percent of data cited
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02
46
810
12
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
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X axis= Number of items not cited per paperY axis= Number of papers
Frequency of un-cited data
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Sources in the bibliographies were fairly evenly distributed between books, articles and websites, with websites taking the lead. Results were similar for the pilot and new study.
Analysis of results
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The researchers see this as an expected and fairly good result, students are not limiting themselves to the web! They are using library resources though faculty could change these percentages via their paper requirements
Analysis of results
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The percentage of quotes to paraphrasing was almost identical in both studies (60/40) and shows a strong preference for quoting.
Generally paraphrasing is preferred as it requires students to integrate the material into their papers.
Results continued
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However 53 % of the quotes did have an introduction and analysis which does integrate the next strongest level of integration.
30% of all citations are Quotes without I or A. This group is the one of most concern (in addition to data not cited) and should be addressed by faculty via instruction
Results continued
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The percentage of sources from bibliographies that were cited was high 78 %, but should really be 100%!
This element can be addressed by both faculty and librarians.
Results continued
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The percentage of factual statements and/or data in papers that was cited adequately was high: 86 %
But this should be 100%
Instruction in the importance of citing data needs to be addressed by both librarians and faculty.
Results continued
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MLA format was not followed exactly in most cases though most students did include the essential elements to uniquely identify sources.
In some cases, citing was not counted by researchers because it was too incomplete to indicate a unique source.
Results continued
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Students' citing behaviors
◦ 14% sources in text not cited◦ 22% bibliography not cited in text◦ 47% quotes without I or A or both
Both librarians and faculty can improve instruction
Implications
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What are the possible instructional strategies to strengthen the liaison between librarians and composition faculty?
How does this study influence library instructional design?◦ SMC Library’s statement on information literacy
Implications continued
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Collaborative opportunities for faculty, librarians, and writing instructors
MLA format & quoting and paraphrasing needs to be taught explicitly and practiced more.
Discussion
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No random sampling
Summaries are not defined
No discussion on types of sources
No association between un-cited information in the papers and plagiarism
Papers from different sections by various instructors
Limitations of this study
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Develop multiple instructional strategies
Design a study to test these strategies
Compare results to a control group
Directions for future research
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Add specialized instruction on citing to sections of first semester English Composition
Compare results with sections not receiving instruction
Track the progress of first semester college students who receive library instruction
Directions continued
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What are faculty and librarians’ recommendations on improving students’ research writing skills?
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Collaboration with the writing center
Short class exercises or group work on citation practices
Citation tools in databases
Citation software to collect bibliographies
Librarians’ recommendations
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Good citation practices
Effective paraphrasing
Explicit assignment instructions and expectations
Collaboration with library and writing center
Faculty’s recommendations
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Use research data
Workshops on MLA
Collaboration with librarians
◦ Online tutorials
◦ Embedded workshops
Writing center’s recommendations