Assignment Resources

While most instructors want to incorporate research skills into their courses, many describe the challenges of a lack of time or experience, while others report unfamiliarity with online technologies and with debates surrounding the "New Plagiarism".

Below you will find strategies for and links to resources on these topics:

• Teaching source evaluation
• Teaching source documentation
• Teaching research skills
• Changing assignment structure
• Changing assignment content

Teaching source evaluation

• Require students to locate different levels and types of research information. Encourage use of Academic Databases and Alternative Databases
• Stipulate types of sources for assignments. A general directive to use five sources will typically result in students using only unevaluated online sources from commercial search engines. For an assignment that details source evaluation and variety, see page 2 of this example from the Dean’s Book Course at Commonwealth College.
• For user-friendly guides to teaching research skills, see Research Tools from the Office of Research Literacy
• Research Tools include Library Database Research Guide, an introduction to academic databases, and Resources for Researchers, a series of materials for teaching skills including source evaluation and documentation.

Teaching source documentation

• Provide feedback that shows students that someone has read the work and looked at the bibliography or works cited page. A common belief among students is that research papers are not read. For a source documentation database with a search engine.
• Let students know that you will check some online sources from selected bibliographies using a commercial search engine such as Google or Yahoo or a plagiarism detection software such as Turnitin.
• Click Here [LINK TO Anne’s materials] for additional materials about source documentation.

Teaching research skills

• Require students to do more than just insert a quotation or go into another’s bibliography and reference sources. Demonstrate how to do an abstract, a paraphrase, and a summary.
• Break assignments down into easily identifiable components that address the research process consecutively. Research questions and research logs are the building blocks of good research.
• Teach students to write a literature review. A literature review is central to generating conclusions, original findings, critical insights, and creative products. Emphasize collecting contextual information across disciplines .
• For a user-friendly guide to teaching research questions and logs as well as literature reviews, see Resources for Researchers .

Changing assignment structure

• Separate assignments into skills such as abstracts, research logs, literature reviews, and oral presentations that are sequenced progressively over a semester timeline to lead up to a final research project. For an assignment with sequential due dates, see this example from the Dean’s Book Course at Commonwealth College. For more information about how to sequence writing assignments, see scaffolding.
• Ask groups of students to research one topic from different perspectives. Have each develop an individual research log, which can then be shared with the other students. Working in groups sharing information is one of the key competencies of all academic and professional as well as citizenship contexts. Encourage groups to meet in the Library Learning Commons.
• Require students to put together several distinct components such as literature reviews and data analyses in researching and writing a paper. For a user-friendly guide to teaching research skills, see Research Tools from the Office of Research Literacy at Commonwealth College.
• Assign due dates for drafts of assignments. Collect drafts for teacher feedback and/or for peer feedback. Assigning drafts helps ensure students don’t write at the last minute and also provides an opportunity for students to revise in response to another’s assessment of their work. Finally, require these earlier drafts be turned in with the final draft; students are less likely to “make up” an entirely new draft to cover up plagiarism than to write the paper themselves.

Changing assignment content

• Construct assignments that move beyond finding facts or collecting other people’s ideas. It is important to develop assignments that encourage students to generate their own ideas and conclusions. See creative suggestions about research papers from the University of Connecticut Library.
• Require students to locate information about specific course concepts or readings rather than just collect and organize resources. This will ask students to engage more fully with course materials as well as teach the critical thinking skill of synthesis.
• Ask for an application of research to another component such as current events or socio-political issues. Show a DVD on a relevant topic and ask students to apply research to specific examples from the film. A by-product of requiring components to be used in application is that you do not need to change the assignments each semester, thus preventing students from reworking a paper from former students. This is especially pertinent to large lectures where the faculty member may be relying on an evolving pool of teaching assistants. Consider putting theory into practice through encouraging research into community-based issues and perhaps including a Community Service Learning component in your course.

For an expanded version of ideas for generating preventive assignments with resources and examples for disparate course sizes, levels, and disciplines, see Research Literacy at Commonwealth College and the Junior-Year Writing websites.