How an <emma> Partnershipwith the Library benefitsFirst-year Composition

Presented by Caroline Cason, University Libraries, University of Georgia (ccason@uga.edu )

In collaboration with Christy Desmet, Department of English (cdesmet@uga.edu)

Ron Balthazor, Department of English (rlbaltha@uga.edu) Kristin Nielsen, University Library (knielsen@uga.edu )

A Natural Alliance

“In an information-rich

world where human

attention is the scarce

commodity, the library’s

business is orchestrating

human attention

structures.”Richard A. Lanham

Introducing <emma>Electronic Markup and Management Applicationhttp://lachesis.english.uga.edu/cocoon/emma3/home

Value Added <emma> combines

assignment and essay with comments . . .

Assignment-Comments-Evaluation

. . .and with the departmental grading rubric.

Pedagogical Implications

<emma> allows teachers and students to see whether essays have addressed the topics in the terms set out by the written assignment.

<emma> allows teachers and students to see whether teachers are grading according to the assignment’s criteria.

<emma> emphasizes writing as PROCESS

Advantages for Teachers and Students

Encourages self-consciousness about teaching and writing;

Helps both groups see writing assignments through the same lens;

Allows both groups to see student essays with a unified pedagogical context.

Essay

Comments + Rubric

Assignment

Writing Process

Collects drafts, comments and final papers together

Dynamic Text Display

Focus on Craft

Compiling a Writing Portfolio

Class Collaboration – the Zine

<emma>’s Advantages for Citation Research

Creates a large database of digital essays;

Researcher Portal customized for our study

Large Database and Storage

Includes permanent storage for essays;

Data Selection

Uses XML tagging for fast, easy extraction of data;

Growing Research Data Set

Solicits Human Subjects permission for research on data set.

Compiling the Data

Questions and Issues

1. Accuracy of the citations

2. Defining the resource categories

3. Determining sample size

Background: Citation Analysis

Cornell Study Undergraduate research

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation study at UGA Graduate research

Cornell University Study

Analyzed Cornell Economics 101 papers, 1996-2001

Between 1996-2000: Citations to books 30% to 16% Citations to newspapers 7% to 19% Citations to Web sites 9% to 22%

Cornell University Study

The professor verbally stressed the importance of using scholarly resources

All students attended a library instruction session taught by a librarian

Result: “…little (if any) effect on improving the scholarly component of research papers”

Cornell University Study

In 2001, the professor added written guidelines to the assignment: At least five sources had to be “published, scientific (peer-

reviewed or university press) articles or pre-prints” Students were warned that TAs would check all citations

for accuracy and quality

Result: The number of scholarly resources (books and journals) that students cited returned to 1996 levels

“Bibliometrics…has been used extensively for studying the publication record of research faculty and their departments, and also to understand how scholars communicate through their publications. There has been very little application of bibliometric research to undergraduate research papers. The principal cause of this problem is that research papers are returned to the student after grading, leaving no repository of their work” (Davis & Cohen 2001).

Graduate Students

University of Georgia study of citations in electronic theses and dissertations “… developed for evaluating the ‘fit’ of the UGA Libraries’

collections with the needs of their patrons.”

Used electronic copies of dissertations in ETD database for citation analysis

Acted as template for methodology used in <emma> study

Our Study – Where Research Meets Pedagogy

Our basic research questions: What types of information are cited by students

(e.g., websites, newspaper articles, journal articles, books)?

Does the University of Georgia Library own these items?

What was the method of access, print or electronic, for sources other than websites?

Citation in Pedagogical Context

Further research questions: How did the teachers’ wording of her assignment

affect students’ understanding of research? What kinds of sources do teachers’ marginal and

end comments suggest are valued most highly by the First-year Composition Program?

Is there a correlation between numbers of citations and grades?

Does formal intervention of a librarian improve the quality of students’ sources?

Citation Analysis

Fall 2004English 1101, English Composition ISix sections, Five instructors

Variables: number of assignments, type of assignment, library instruction

Looked at 20 assignments, counted more than 800 citations

Fall 2004 - Breakdown of 823 Citations

BooksMagazinesJournalsNewspaperWWWOther

53% WWW

12% Other

6% Newspapers

17% Books

9% Magazines

3% Journals

Breakdown of Fall 2004 Web Citations

NewsGovOrgEduCom/Net

22% Org

15% News

7% Edu

8% Gov

48% Com/Net

Spring 2005 - Breakdown of 1153 Citations

BooksMagazinesJournalsNewspaperWWWOther24% WWW

2% Other

1% Newspapers

42% Books

5% Magazines

25% Journals

Breakdown of Spring 2005 Web Citations

NewsGovOrgEduCom/Net

20% Org

2% News

24% Edu

6% Gov

48% Com/Net

2004 / 2005 Comparison – websites

2004 Websites Cited (n=435)

15%

8%

22%

7%

48%

NewsGovtOrgEduCom/Net

2005 Websites Cited (n=280)2% 6%

20%

24%

48%

NewsGovtOrgEduCom/Net

Com

New Behaviors

Wikis appear! Song lyrics DVDs TV shows –

especially reality TV

Influence of Assignment and Instruction

Group A (ENGL 1101, Fall) – No library instruction; students asked to use “academic sources” but not referred to anything outside class texts. 109 Total Citations.

Group B (ENGL 1101, Spring) – Two library instruction sessions occurring before research assignments; students asked for 5 sources, “4 of which must be from academic journals scholarly texts, or respected news and editorial magazines.” 262 Total Citations.

Group A - Source Summary

0%

0%

3%

85%

12%

Books

Magazines

Journals

News

WWW

Group B - Source Summary4%

26%

13%

27%

30%Books

Magazines

Journals

News

WWW

FYC Competency Standard

“Incorporates evidence from outside sources smoothly, appropriately, and responsibly”

Partnership Possibilities? With Department

Drafting practical guidelines for writing an effective assignment Working with Writing Center to provided Research & Writing

workshops

With Instructors Planning library instruction content to help meet course

competency outcomes Timing library sessions to work with the course assignments

With Students Teaching correct citation style One-on-One consultations email and on desk Add us as peer reviewers?

Additional areas of study Longitudinal studies

“Recidivism” rate over course of semester Tracking trends over years

Assignments Influence of assignment specificity Influence of library instruction Influence of review process

Library related questions Ownership – are students using the collection Method of access – print versus online

Web research What types of information are students using from the Web? What sources do they cite? (.edu, .com, etc.)

Other ideas?

Suggested Sources Visit the <emma> homepage <http://www.emma.uga.edu> for documentation and links

to publications and other presentations.

Cornell StudiesDavis, Philip M. and Suzanne A. Cohen. “The Effect of the Web on Undergraduate Citation Behavior 1996-1999.” Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 52 (2001): 309-314.

Davis, Philip M. “The Effect of the Web on Undergraduate Citation Behavior: A 2000 Update.” College and Research Libraries 63 (2002): 53-60.

Davis, Philip M. “The Effect of the Web on Undergraduate Citation Behavior: Guiding Student Scholarship in a Networked Age.” portal: Libraries and the Academy 3 (2003): 41-51.

University of Georgia Theses/Dissertations Citation StudySmith, Erin T. “Assessing Collection Usefulness: An Investigation of Library Ownership of the Resources Graduate Students Use.” College and Research Libraries 64 (2003): 344-55.