How an <emma> Partnership with the Library benefits First-year Composition

1. 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 )

2. 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

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

4. Value Added • <emma> combines assignment and essay with comments . . .

5. Assignment-Comments-Evaluation • . . .and with the departmental grading rubric.

6. 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

7. 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.

8. Writing Process Collects drafts, comments and final papers together

9. Dynamic Text Display

10. Focus on Craft

11. Compiling a Writing Portfolio

12. Class Collaboration – the Zine

13. <emma>’s Advantages for Citation Research • Creates a large database of digital essays; • Researcher Portal customized for our study

14. Includes permanent storage for essays; Large Database and Storage

15. Data Selection • Uses XML tagging for fast, easy extraction of data;

16. Growing Research Data Set • Solicits Human Subjects permission for research on data set.

17. Compiling the Data • Questions and Issues • Accuracy of the citations • Defining the resource categories • Determiningsample size

18. Background: Citation Analysis • Cornell Study • Undergraduate research • Electronic Thesis and Dissertation study at UGA • Graduate research

19. 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%

20. 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”

21. 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

22. “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).

23. 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

24. 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?

25. 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?

26. Citation Analysis Fall 2004 English 1101, English Composition I Six sections, Five instructors • Variables: number of assignments, type of assignment, library instruction • Looked at 20 assignments, counted more than 800 citations

27. Fall 2004 - Breakdown of 823 Citations 17% Books 9% Magazines 3% Journals 6% Newspapers 53% WWW 12% Other

28. Breakdown of Fall 2004 Web Citations 15% News 8% Gov 22%Org 7% Edu 48% Com/Net

29. Spring 2005 - Breakdown of 1153 Citations 42% Books 5% Magazines 25% Journals 1% Newspapers 24% WWW 2% Other

30. Breakdown of Spring 2005 Web Citations 2% News 6% Gov 20%Org 24% Edu 48% Com/Net

31. 2004 / 2005 Comparison – websites

32. New Behaviors • Wikis appear! • Song lyrics • DVDs • TV shows – especially reality TV

33. 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.

34. FYC Competency Standard “Incorporates evidence from outside sources smoothly, appropriately, and responsibly”

35. 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?

36. 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?

37. Suggested Sources • Visit the <emma> homepage <http://www.emma.uga.edu> for documentation and links to publications and other presentations. • Cornell Studies Davis, 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 Study Smith, Erin T. “Assessing Collection Usefulness: An Investigation of Library Ownership of the Resources Graduate Students Use.” College and Research Libraries 64 (2003): 344-55.