Processes of Library Research

Students should demonstrate that they can locate and evaluate print and electronic sources and use these sources to write a documented research paper.

Teaching Resources

The Citation Project
You’ll find lots of scholarly research here about the way that students use sources in their writing. These studies and sources (including especially the section on patchwriting) can give you a good frame for teaching these skills and using the other resources on this page.

Quoting, Paraphrasing, & Summarizing (from Lauren’s the Write Way)
This short YouTube video defines the techniques of quoting, paraphrasing and summarizing and shows examples of each. It’s brief and focused, but doesn’t spend as much time talking about the process of paraphrasing or summarizing nor does it give reasoning for why we’d chose any of these techniques.

Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting: A Guide to Doing it Right! (from Genesse Library)
A longer YouTube video that goes into more detail about the process of these techniques with elaborated examples. It also examines some of the rationale for using a quote versus summarizing or paraphrasing.

Avoiding Patchwriting (from Portland State University Library)
Patchwriting (summaries and paraphrases that too closely resemble the original) is a real challenge for our students, especially when they encounter academic texts that may be less accessible in their research. This short YouTube video discusses this problem and ways to address it.

Patchwriting As A Technique (from the Sweetland Center for Writing at Univ of Michigan)
Rather than see patchwriting as completely bad, this site suggests ways we can use it to help students develop better paraphrases and understandings of complex texts. A valuable resource that could inform your teaching during the conference paper.

The Ethics of Plagiarism by Rebecca Howard (Google Books link)
Howard is the first to coin the term patchwriting and in this chapter discusses its implications for writing instruction, linking it to broader issues that are relevant to what we do in Writing 150.

Lesson Ideas & Plans

Narrow Your Topic (Erica Larsen)
Finding an appropriate topic (in terms of relevance and scope) can be challenging for students. This lesson plan helps them see how to take a broad topic and narrow it.

Effective Research Strategies (Maren Nield)
This lesson uses clips from the Harry Potter films to showcase effective and less-effective strategies for research, then builds on that to challenge students to develop a research plan.