How an <emma> Partnership
with the Library benefits
First-year Composition
Presented by
Caroline Cason,
University Libraries, University of Georgia
(ccason@uga.edu )
In collaboration with
Christy Desmet, Department of English (cdesmet@uga.edu)
Ron Balthazor, Department of English (rlbaltha@uga.edu)
Kristin Nielsen, University Library (knielsen@uga.edu )
A Natural Alliance
“In an information-rich
world where human
attention is the scarce
commodity, the library’s
business is orchestrating
human attention
structures.”
Richard A. Lanham
Introducing <emma>
Electronic Markup and Management
Application
http://lachesis.english.uga.edu/cocoon/emma3/home
Value Added

<emma> combines
assignment and essay
with comments . . .
Assignment-CommentsEvaluation

. . .and with the
departmental grading
rubric.
Pedagogical Implications

<emma> allows teachers and students to see
whether essays have addressed the topics in
the terms set out by the written assignment.

<emma> allows teachers and students to see
whether teachers are grading according to
the assignment’s criteria.

<emma> emphasizes writing as PROCESS
Advantages for Teachers and
Students

Encourages selfconsciousness about
teaching and writing;
Assignment

Helps both groups see
writing assignments through
the same lens;

Allows both groups to see
student essays with a
unified pedagogical context.
Essay
Comments + Rubric
Writing Process
Collects drafts, comments and final papers together
Dynamic Text Display
Focus on Craft
Compiling a Writing Portfolio
Class Collaboration – the Zine
<emma>’s Advantages for
Citation Research


Creates a large
database of digital
essays;
Researcher Portal
customized for our
study
Large Database and Storage

Includes permanent storage
for essays;
Data Selection

Uses XML tagging for
fast, easy extraction of
data;
Growing Research Data Set

Solicits Human
Subjects permission for
research on data set.
Compiling the Data
Questions and Issues

1.
2.
3.
Accuracy of the citations
Defining the resource categories
Determining sample size
Background: Citation Analysis

Cornell Study


Undergraduate research
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation study at
UGA

Graduate research
Cornell University Study

Analyzed Cornell Economics 101 papers,
1996-2001
Between 1996-2000:
 Citations to books
30% to 16%
 Citations to newspapers 7%
to 19%
 Citations to Web sites
9% to 22%
Cornell University Study

The professor verbally stressed the importance of
using scholarly resources

All students attended a library instruction session
taught by a librarian
Result: “…little (if any) effect on improving the
scholarly component of research papers”
Cornell University Study

In 2001, the professor added written guidelines to
the assignment:


At least five sources had to be “published, scientific (peerreviewed or university press) articles or pre-prints”
Students were warned that TAs would check all citations
for accuracy and quality
Result: The number of scholarly resources (books
and journals) that students cited returned to 1996
levels

“Bibliometrics…has been used extensively for
studying the publication record of research
faculty and their departments, and also to
understand how scholars communicate
through their publications. There has been
very little application of bibliometric research
to undergraduate research papers. The
principal cause of this problem is that
research papers are returned to the
student after grading, leaving no
repository of their work” (Davis & Cohen
2001).
Graduate Students

University of Georgia study of citations in electronic
theses and dissertations



“… developed for evaluating the ‘fit’ of the UGA Libraries’
collections with the needs of their patrons.”
Used electronic copies of dissertations in ETD
database for citation analysis
Acted as template for methodology used in <emma>
study
Our Study –
Where Research Meets Pedagogy

Our basic research questions:



What types of information are cited by students
(e.g., websites, newspaper articles, journal
articles, books)?
Does the University of Georgia Library own these
items?
What was the method of access, print or
electronic, for sources other than websites?
Citation in Pedagogical
Context

Further research questions:




How did the teachers’ wording of her assignment
affect students’ understanding of research?
What kinds of sources do teachers’ marginal and
end comments suggest are valued most highly by
the First-year Composition Program?
Is there a correlation between numbers of
citations and grades?
Does formal intervention of a librarian improve the
quality of students’ sources?
Citation Analysis
Fall 2004
English 1101, English Composition I
Six sections, Five instructors


Variables: number of assignments, type of
assignment, library instruction
Looked at 20 assignments, counted more
than 800 citations
Fall 2004 - Breakdown of 823
Citations
17% Books
9% Magazines
3% Journals
6% Newspapers
53% WWW
12% Other
Books
Magazines
Journals
Newspaper
WWW
Other
Breakdown of Fall 2004 Web
Citations
15% News
8% Gov
22% Org
7% Edu
48% Com/Net
News
Gov
Org
Edu
Com/Net
Spring 2005 - Breakdown of
1153 Citations
42% Books
5% Magazines
25% Journals
1% Newspapers
24% WWW
2% Other
Books
Magazines
Journals
Newspaper
WWW
Other
Breakdown of Spring 2005
Web Citations
2% News
6% Gov
20% Org
24% Edu
48% Com/Net
News
Gov
Org
Edu
Com/Net
2004 / 2005 Comparison –
websites
2004 Websites Cited (n=435)
15%
8%
48%
News
Govt
Org
Edu
Com/Net
22%
2005 Websites Cited (n=280)
2% 6%
7%
20%
Com
48%
24%
News
Govt
Org
Edu
Com/Net
New Behaviors




Wikis appear!
Song lyrics
DVDs
TV shows –
especially reality
TV
Influence of Assignment and
Instruction
Group A - Source Summary
12%
Group B - Source Summary
4%
0%
0%
30%
3%
26%
Books
Magazines
Magazines
85%
Books
Journals
Journals
New s
New s
WWW
WWW
13%
27%

Group A (ENGL 1101, Fall) – No library instruction; students asked
to use “academic sources” but not referred to anything outside class
texts. 109 Total Citations.

Group B (ENGL 1101, Spring) – Two library instruction sessions
occurring before research assignments; students asked for 5
sources, “4 of which must be from academic journals scholarly texts,
or respected news and editorial magazines.” 262 Total Citations.
FYC Competency Standard
“Incorporates evidence
from outside sources
smoothly, appropriately,
and responsibly”
Partnership Possibilities?

With Department
 Drafting practical guidelines for writing an effective assignment
 Working with Writing Center to provided Research & Writing
workshops

With Instructors
 Planning library instruction content to help meet course
competency outcomes
 Timing library sessions to work with the course assignments

With Students
 Teaching correct citation style
 One-on-One consultations email and on desk
 Add us as peer reviewers?
Additional areas of study





Longitudinal studies
 “Recidivism” rate over course of semester
 Tracking trends over years
Assignments
 Influence of assignment specificity
 Influence of library instruction
 Influence of review process
Library related questions
 Ownership – are students using the collection
 Method of access – print versus online
Web research
 What types of information are students using from the Web?
 What sources do they cite? (.edu, .com, etc.)
Other ideas?
Suggested Sources

Visit the <emma> homepage <http://www.emma.uga.edu> for documentation and links
to publications and other presentations.
Cornell Studies
Davis, Philip M. and Suzanne A. Cohen. “The Effect of the Web on Undergraduate
Citation Behavior 1996-1999.” Journal of the American Society for Information Science and
Technology 52 (2001): 309-314.

Davis, Philip M. “The Effect of the Web on Undergraduate Citation Behavior: A 2000
Update.” College and Research Libraries 63 (2002): 53-60.
Davis, Philip M. “The Effect of the Web on Undergraduate Citation Behavior: Guiding
Student Scholarship in a Networked Age.” portal: Libraries and the Academy 3 (2003):
41-51.
University of Georgia Theses/Dissertations Citation Study
Smith, Erin T. “Assessing Collection Usefulness: An Investigation of Library Ownership
of the Resources Graduate Students Use.” College and Research Libraries 64 (2003):
344-55.
