A Universe of Information, One Citation at a Time: How Students Engage with Scholarly Sources

Abstract

We spend hours teaching students where to go to find resources, but how do students really use those scholarly resources—and other resources—in their papers? Inspired by the Citation Project, University of Richmond liaison librarians examined First-Year Seminar papers to see what types of sources students used in their writing, how they incorporated those sources, and the various citation conventions they used. By focusing on the degrees to which students integrate source material into their writing, we recommend pedagogical practices that can enhance students’ understanding of source integration and citation standards.

KEYWORDS:

• information literacy
• critical thinking
• source use
• citations
• First-Year Seminar