First Year English Library Instruction Opportunities

This library session will focus on using library databases to find and access scholarly resources. It is possible to tailor this session to the course instructor’s specific paper requirements.

Questions to consider:

• Will all students be addressing the same specific theme, e.g. human nature? If so, we can put together a session that directs students to resources that address only your chosen theme.
• Will you allow your students to use a combination of scholarly and non-scholarly resources?
• Will you allow your students to use multi-media sources?
• Will you allow students to use sources found on the free web (not in library databases)?

Student Learning Outcomes

Students will:

• Differentiate between the content indexed in a library catalog, a library database, and the free web in order to select a research tool which will retrieve desired resources.
• Decipher a database record in order to locate materials through UT Arlington Library.
• Construct basic search strategies in order to retrieve accurate and relevant materials.

This session is for classes that have already attended the Finding Resources session. Rather than the librarian providing instructional content, students will use the library’s computer classroom to work on their papers. The librarian will assist students with narrowing their topic, research, and citation. The course instructor will be available to answer students’ questions about writing or assignment expectations. 

Working in small groups, students will identify what constitutes plagiarism; outline the disciplinary process at UT Arlington for violations of academic integrity standards; explore the possible consequences for those who continue to plagiarize in their professional lives; and demonstrate the proper citation of the “plagiarized” material. Each group presents portions of what they have discovered to the other groups, and all students are encouraged to participate in class discussion, thus challenging the students to think more deeply about the ethical use of information.

Student Learning Outcomes

Students will:

• Identify and summarize the economic, legal, and social standards for information use.
• Identify and consider the ethical context for information use.
• Identify and assess the consequences for unethical information use.

Working in groups, students will identify sources by type (journal, magazine, web site, etc.) and compete to correctly complete the Works Cited entries for each source provided.  Class discussion will focus on the mechanics of MLA style Works Cited pages and parenthetical citation.

Student Learning Outcomes

Students will:

• Identify, locate, and arrange necessary publication information in order to accurately cite a source using MLA style.

Your students will learn to critically evaluate online/print sources in order to analyze their assigned article and offer a recommendation for or against publication in The Shorthorn, as detailed in Paper 2. We will examine the author (credentials, institutional affiliation), date of publication, publisher, and title of journal (if applicable). Then we will analyze the content for intended audience, objectivity, reasoning, and writing style. By learning to determine authority and relevance of a given source, students will be able to make a recommendation in their Rhetorical Analysis paper.