Correlations Between Information Literacy Competency and Student Writing Performance in an English 101 course at an Urban Community College

ABSTRACT

This paper examines, and attempts to quantify, the effects of acquiring Information Literacy skills and their subsequent impact on student performance in English Composition courses at Queensborough Community College (QCC). This was a collaborative effort between a librarian and four members of the English department faculty at QCC. The study participants were QCC students enrolled in five sections of English 101 during the fall semester of 2016. There were experimental groups with multiple library instructional classes and a control group without any library class. A research paper was used to measure Information Literacy skills as well as the students' overall writing competency. The results of this study are not compelling enough to lend themselves to any overall statements about the students' writing skills. However, the data does show that there is a significant relationship between information literacy skills and the grades students received on the research paper.

KEYWORDS:

• Information literacy
• english composition
• community college students
• a correlation study
• freshman college student writing