No More Research?
Why don't students know how to cite research anymore? I would estimate that 75% of my students each semester do not know how to put together a bibliography or provide proper in-text citations. I don't just mean that they make small errors, but that they don't even produce anything close!
I get lists of sources at the end in no order whatsoever. I get students who include the entire entry right after the quote and don't put any bibliography at the end at all. Students use Google and Yahoo for research and have no concept of what a scholarly source is.
I expect a certain amount of mistakes, but don't they teach you to alphabetize your list of sources? Don't students at least know to include the author, title, publisher, and date? I know other professors (in history, psych, etc) don't teach research. That's my job as the composition instructor. But freshman comp is about strengthening skills of grammar, essay structure, and thesis statements. Most composition courses include research, but don't focus on it wholly. And why not? I feel like freshman comp should spend about half the semester on research, citations, bibliographies, etc. How else will the students be prepared when other professors expect they know how to do this?
What really blows my mind is that my students who seems to be struggling are not in freshman comp - they're all in the second level of English composition! So I wonder not only what high schools are teaching these kids, but what did their freshman comp professors teach them? And maybe part of the problem is the curriculum, not the teachers or professors themselves.
This is a very scatterbrained dumping of frustration. I just had to pause in my afternoon of essay grading to express a little confusion and frustration over the mistakes I seem to correcting on paper after paper after paper...
I get lists of sources at the end in no order whatsoever. I get students who include the entire entry right after the quote and don't put any bibliography at the end at all. Students use Google and Yahoo for research and have no concept of what a scholarly source is.
I expect a certain amount of mistakes, but don't they teach you to alphabetize your list of sources? Don't students at least know to include the author, title, publisher, and date? I know other professors (in history, psych, etc) don't teach research. That's my job as the composition instructor. But freshman comp is about strengthening skills of grammar, essay structure, and thesis statements. Most composition courses include research, but don't focus on it wholly. And why not? I feel like freshman comp should spend about half the semester on research, citations, bibliographies, etc. How else will the students be prepared when other professors expect they know how to do this?
What really blows my mind is that my students who seems to be struggling are not in freshman comp - they're all in the second level of English composition! So I wonder not only what high schools are teaching these kids, but what did their freshman comp professors teach them? And maybe part of the problem is the curriculum, not the teachers or professors themselves.
This is a very scatterbrained dumping of frustration. I just had to pause in my afternoon of essay grading to express a little confusion and frustration over the mistakes I seem to correcting on paper after paper after paper...
posted by KTB at
2:15 PM
2 Comments:
I just want to record the comments that I received on my Facebook post here as well since I tend to look back at this blog repeatedly.
Thoughts from my dear writer friend, Erica.
Hm. We spent a LOT of time on this topic in the courses I instructed. Basically assumed the students didn't know anything about it. Maybe the amount of focus is different from school to school?
That said, even when covering the material in GREAT DETAIL and with REPEATED lessons on common errors . . . I still found a lot of the same problems cropping up. (And THAT said, many other students learned it perfectly. So, yay!)
My honest opinion? Composition is a required class. And what I as a college student would have classified as a 'back-burner' class . . . the one class in my busy semester that simply had to get the least amount of my time allotted to it. Many students are not poring over their papers to be sure that they are perfect . . . especially the nit-picky, annoying little aspect of research and citation.
I remember actually kind of fighting learning that information as an undergrad because I, as a CREATIVE writer, wanted nothing to do with it . . . it was boring . . . ha. Had to learn it eventually. And they will, if they want to get anywhere . . . you just get the frustrating job of reminding them.
By
KTB, at 8:47 PM
I never took composition in college, honestly, haha! I had AP credits, and I asked the department if I could use them for Intro to Lit instead of comp, because I figure comp would be easier for me. But since I was an English major with a writing focus, Dr. Schakel waived the requirement for me. I was fortunate enough to have a high school English ... See Moreteacher who spent an entire quarter on one literary research essay, so I had it down.
But I think you're right, Erica, it does vary from school to school. And I think I have enough freedom in most of my classes that I can make it a larger focus than I have been. One of my favorite classes to teach these past few semesters has been a second level comp which is ENTIRELY focused on research. The students write 3 research essays which they continue to edit all semester before the final graded portfolio. And by the end, they all really do get it! I think I need to try to focus on research earlier in all my other classes so even if they only use one or two sources when writing their essays, they are practicing citations.
By
KTB, at 8:47 PM
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