Collaboration is Key: Librarians and Composition Instructors Analyze Student Research and Writing

This study describes a collaborative research project between two composition instructors and two librarians that analyzed citation patterns among students in the First-year Composition Program at the University of Georgia. Built upon earlier bibliometric studies, this study seeks not only to examine a large data set of citations—larger than was possible in the previous studies—but also to examine citations within the context of individual writers, teachers, assignments, and library instruction, a move that allows the researchers to scrutinize and compare their own evaluations of and assumptions about student research. The authors conclude that neither library nor composition instruction alone yields the strongest student writing but that close collaboration between the two in both creating the assignment and delivering instruction is essential to supporting good student writing and research.