Purpose & Goals

While much library instruction focuses on finding, evaluating, and citing information from sources, another element of information literacy is the ability to effectively use information. In an academic context, students are expected to incorporate information from sources into their papers in order to meet the goals of the assignment. Doing this effectively requires appropriate use of quoting, paraphrasing, and summary, as well as the awareness of the purposes that information from sources can serve in written communication. To get a baseline measurement of how well our students were performing in these areas, we addressed the following assessment question: How are students using information from sources in their papers and what motivates their choices?

Design & Methodology

Our analysis of student work was inspired by some of the methods employed by the Citation Project. Our multi-disciplinary team of six faculty collected student papers from 300-level writing classes in six disciplines and coded them. Each instance of information from a source (n=204) occurring in each paper was coded by two faculty scholars, and any coding discrepancies were resolved through discussion. Cited information was coded as a direct quote, a paraphrase, or a summary, and each of these categories had additional codes related to the nature of its use and its appropriateness. Information regarding the presence of synthesis, the rhetorical purpose of the information, and its location in the paper were also recorded. These codes and categories provided a snapshot of how students are using information from sources at our institution. In order to gauge students’ perspectives on our initial findings and to better understand their motivations, we subsequently conducted focus groups with seven 300-level writing classes from five disciplines (n=100). These focus groups doubled as instructional workshops, as we first had students respond to prompts about their practices/attitudes, and then followed by presenting our best practices for source-based writing. Coding of the resulting qualitative data was conducted in NVivo by a multi-disciplinary team of six faculty.

Findings

Students were primarily writing from sentences rather than sources. Direct quotes were often used when a paraphrase would have been more appropriate, and for the most part, did not conform to the “quote sandwich” format. Paraphrasing was largely successful, although over a third of paraphrases were patchwritten. Summary was used in 22% of the cases. Indirect citations made up 21% of our sample, which is a high percentage considering that this is a practice that should be seldom used. More concerningly, 71% of the indirect citations did not attribute the idea to the proper author. In most cases (88%), we did not see any evidence of synthesis. There were a number of different ways that cited information was used by students in their papers (background information, evidence, definitions, etc.). Student focus groups uncovered some negativity associated with assignments that require information from outside sources, with 50% of participants anticipating the task to be difficult or time consuming and 28% describing a negative emotional reaction. Participants identified the most challenging aspects as finding sources (60%), evaluating sources (57%), and citing sources (26%). They wished that instructors would provide greater detail in their instruction prompts (45%), along with examples (42%) and additional information related to finding, evaluating, and using sources (31%). Participants were able to identify some purposes that information could serve in their papers, such as supporting claims (42%) and presenting new ideas (23%). Students had a variety of explanations for when they use a direct quote versus a paraphrase versus a summary, but one theme that arose in each of these categories was efficiency. Students clearly value efficiency and often choose the method of source incorporation (direct quote, paraphrase, summary) that they find the most efficient for the task.

Action & Impact

Our findings prompted us to develop materials to support faculty instruction in these areas. Our “Source Guidelines Template” allows faculty to copy/paste appropriate guidelines for finding, evaluating, and using sources into their assignment prompts. We also created a slide deck for faculty as a starting point for discussing these topics with their students. Additionally, we are targeting 300-level writing classes for further library instruction sessions on these topics.

Practical Implications & Value

Through this presentation, the library assessment community will become more aware of assessment methods for evaluating student use of information from sources. Additionally, while our results are not generalizable to other institutions, they may indicate that this is an area librarians should address with their instruction. The use of information from sources is a competency that is infrequently addressed in the library literature, perhaps because it exists at the intersection of information literacy and written communication. Our findings indicate that many of our students are not receiving sufficient instruction in this area, suggesting that it could be a welcome addition to library instruction. Faculty at our institution have been open to (and grateful for) librarian-led instruction related to source-based writing.