[Teaching_Composition] Re: Teaching_Composition digest, Vol 1 #1183 - 3 msgs

[Terri Fredrick]

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A great topic ... and a timely one, as I heard a presentation this weekend
from Randall McClure on the relative failures of FYC when it comes to
teaching research. One of his main arguments was that composition faculty
are usually well-trained trained to teach writing, but not to teach
research. Cooperative work with librarians might help to address that
problem.

Our content librarians typically spend quite a bit of time tailoring their
library lectures to specific groups of students. The librarian for English,
for example, took a copy of my assignment sheet and a list of the students'
paper topics two days before our class visit. The students were so excited
to arrive at the reference section to find books related to each of their
topics already located. Because she believes that students value the library
search process more if they're working on a specific topic, she generally
recommends that we NOT bring our students to the library until students have
committed to their topics.

While I almost always have my FYC and advanced composition classes go to the
libraries and work with the librarians, I don't always do so with the
professional writing classes. Some have already taken library tours with
past classes and may find the material repetitive. So much of the research
they do comes from sources not typically associated with the library.
Students seem to connect library materials to academic writing, so when
students use books and journal articles, they tend to fall back into
academic patterns of writing rather than the approaches we are practicing as
part of the class. My sense is that I could do a better job of employing the
library and working with the library staff in my professional writing
classes (in a way that doesn't repeat the process I used for the comp
classes). I'd appreciate suggestions.

Terri

---
Dr. Terri Fredrick
Assistant Professor of English
Eastern Illinois University
tfredrick@gmail.com

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A great topic ... and a timely one, as I heard a presentation this
weekend from Randall McClure on the relative failures of FYC when it
comes to teaching research. One of his main arguments was that
composition faculty are usually well-trained trained to teach writing,
but not to teach research. Cooperative work with librarians might help
to address that problem.<br>
<br>
Our content librarians typically spend quite a bit of time tailoring
their library lectures to specific groups of students. The librarian
for English, for example, took a copy of my assignment sheet and a list
of the students&#39; paper topics two days before our class visit. The
students were so excited to arrive at the reference section to find
books related to each of their topics already located. Because she
believes that students value the library search process more if they&#39;re
working on a specific topic, she generally recommends that we NOT bring
our students to the library until students have committed to their
topics. <br>
<br>
While I almost always have my FYC and advanced composition classes go
to the libraries and work with the librarians, I don&#39;t always do so
with the professional writing classes. Some have already taken library
tours with past classes and may find the material repetitive. So much
of the research they do comes from sources not typically associated
with the library. Students seem to connect library materials to
academic writing, so when students use books and journal articles, they
tend to fall back into academic patterns of writing rather than the
approaches we are practicing as part of the class. My sense is that I
could do a better job of employing the library and working with the
library staff in my professional writing classes (in a way that doesn&#39;t
repeat the process I used for the comp classes). I&#39;d appreciate
suggestions.<br><br>
Terri<br>
<br>--- <br>Dr. Terri Fredrick<br>Assistant Professor of English<br>Eastern Illinois University<br><a href="mailto:tfredrick@gmail.com">tfredrick@gmail.com</a>

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