Related Modules from Teaching Composition

Previous modules on the Teaching Composition website speak, directly or indirectly, to issues of source use in the academy. For each entry on this list, I include a brief description of the module and my own questions [in brackets] regarding the module’s implications for a consideration of student source use. It is my hope that the questions may generate further conversation regarding students’ use of sources in the academy.

Thaiss, Christopher. “What are the Common Characteristics of Academic Writing?” http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/english/tc/Thaiss/ThaissModuleWhatAretheCommonCharacteristics.htm

Presents various discussions of academic writing by Bizzell, Bartholomae, and Behrens and Rosen, all of whom consider how sources are used in academic discourse. [Question: How do the challenges to traditional academic discourse presented in modules by Matt Parfitt and Irvin Peckham expand or revise these conceptions of source use?]

Adler-Kassner, Linda. “Rethinking Research Writing: Research as a Public Activity.”

http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/english/tc/kassner/kassner_module.htm

Highlights the ways students might be expected and/or encouraged to use sources in the context of their own research inquiry. [Question: does source use in research writing differ qualitatively from source use in other forms of academic discourse?]

Peckham, Irvin. “Teaching Middle-Class Writing in Freshman Composition.” http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/english/tc/peckham/peckhammodule.html

Interrogates the character of the “conversation” in academic discourse, particularly noting how a focus on argument can distance a writer from his/her subject matter. [Question: As with Parfitt’s discussion, how might a movement away from academic discourse toward some other forms of discourse in freshman writing courses alter how we teach students to use sources?]

Parfitt, Matt. “Our Love-Hate Relationship with Academic Discourse.”

http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/english/tc/parfitt/parfittmodule.html

Considers the value of non-thesis driven writing in freshman writing courses. [Question: Does a reconsideration of the ends and aims of freshman composition courses have implications for how we teach students to use sources?]

Howard, Rebecca Moore. “The Search for a Cure: Understanding the ‘Plagiarism Epidemic.’” http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/english/tc/howard/HowardModule03.htm

Considers plagiarism in the academy and offers critical perspectives on the “plagiarism epidemic.” [Question: How can we teach source use in such a way that we decrease the amount of unintentional plagiarism that might occur in freshman composition classes? ]

Sargent, Elizabeth. “Connecting Reading and Writing: Ink-shedding-to-Learn.” http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/english/tc/pt/sarg/mginkshd_final.html

Sargent describes her use of ink-shedding and the introduction of ink-shedding report forms, where students respond to each other’s ink-sheds. [Question: How might the activity of responding to other students’ ink-shedding—or, really, of responding to any form of other students’ writing—be devised to provide opportunities for students to experience the pleasure of becoming rather than simply using sources?]

Hapke, Gail. “Preventing Plagiarism: A Pedagogical Approach.” http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/english/tc/pt/plagiarism/Plag.intro1.htm

Discusses the nature of plagiarism and presents teaching practices that help develop students’ ability to use sources appropriately. [Question: What specific class activities might “encourage independent thinking,” and what are some practical ways to “supervise source work”?]

Teaching “Source Use”: What Does It Mean?

Teaching Composition

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