"An analysis of research papers written in first-year composition courses at 15 colleges reveals that many students simply copy chunks of text from the sources they cite without truly grasping the underlying argument, quality or context." - Mark Kille

This is my surprised face. - DJF

I don't think mine would fare well, either; generally I was doing text analysis of one kind or another. Summarizing sources would have felt like hiding the evidence. - Mark Kille

Yeah. The idea that students can become expert writers of academic prose in one semester is ridiculous. No one expects students to be expert biologists after one semester of biology in their freshman year. This is merely a natural, developmental stage of learning to write academic papers. It doesn't shock me one bit. - Katy S

Didn't Shakespeare suggest that first? - DJF

I was at that conference and was on a panel that concluded citation shouldn't be emphasized in the first year - #burnthemanual - barbara fister

Steve - I agree. - Katy S

Personally, I feel that this is evidence of failure of writing and research instruction earlier than college. When I was in high school ('91-'95), we actually had an additional period once per week devoted to writing as part of our English class. I learned how to write a five paragraph essay (intro, reason 1, 2 , 3, conclusion) in my sleep. We worked on research papers, finding sources, and how to paraphrase and how to cite. I don't think my high school was exceptional; it's a public school in a middle class town. I credit it with being the foundation for the writer I am today. But with the amount of instruction that is spent teaching towards tests, they did away with the extra writing period about ten years ago. It's crazy that it could change so much even within 10 years, but I think it's a reflection of the new widely available sources out there. I agree that it is an unreasonable expectation to imagine that freshmen will be writing academic prose within a semester, but when the foundations are missing, I think that becomes even harder. - Andy

I think they are not the same skills, but I think they are not discrete. There's a huge amount of overlap in the area where people match their evidence to their audience. "What will count as good evidence to my audience" is absolutely fundamental to both writing and research -- it's their joint raison d'etre. - lris

And I think of "research" and "evidence" very broadly, I think. - lris

From one of the comments: "As for teaching the distinction between peer-review and non-peer-reviewed research, I use a handy rule of thumb: if you need a password to read it, the source is probably okay. If not, then not." - LB ❤s FF, esp. YOU

I think of writing, even creative writing, as a way to make an audience see something the way you want them to see it. The most interesting writing will do this even for audiences that didn't see it in quite the same light as before. And moving an audience from point A to point B like that takes some doing. That doing is the "evidence" at work in combination with rhetoric. - lris

No. - lris

I feel like I've helped take this conversation pretty far afield here, but briefly, I don't think that I exist on my campus to make sure that students can find scholarly books and articles. I'm there to help them build contexts for themselves and then for their audiences, whether for class discussion or presentations or posters or papers. I'm there to help them evaluate what they find against their intended use and audience. Often that means building context using scholarly sources, but not always. - lris

Iris - you might like Wendy Bishop's work. She edited a textbook titled The Subject is Research that includes discussions of the ways that research is used in all sorts of writing, including creative writing. - Katy S

Thanks Katy. And yes, Steve, that's it exactly. - lris

Rules of thumb have exceptions. It's just a good first glance consideration when evaluating a source. - Andy

One guy on our panel suggested asking first year students to use sources and write about them the way people do normally - like journalists or op/ed authors or people trying to explain something or argue a point. Teach writing from sources with citations in the major starting whenever it's really important - say, junior year. I am loving that idea. - barbara fister

Andy, I think what happened since you were in high school is NCLB. Writing well-researched arguments is not on the test. - barbara fister

Barbara: Yeah, that's the testing system I'm referring to. - Andy

Steve: Perhaps. I dunno. I'd have to think about it. (This is what Dungeons & Dragons does to the brain; it doesn't immediately dismiss rules right away. :P ) - Andy

I really want to rethink the "research paper" which was famously called "a non-form of writing" by Richard Larson way back in 1982. In fact, I want to ditch it entirely and involve students in composing using evidence that they find and understand and compose in forms that they can actually use to express themselves. When they get to the point that they need to use formal disciplinary conventions, then ask them to. Not when they've never even read a scholarly paper before. - barbara fister

I'm with joan. And Iris and everyone else who has good ideas about this topic. And boo hiss to APA and MLA rules and bad assignments that only exist so that students will be ready for more bad assignments. Librarians and first year comp instructors are both in a bit of bind over this expectation. - barbara fister