Author Search Project FOUN105 Assessment Results D. Tamburello O.F.M.

The Assignment You will be given the name of an author. Your task is to find out as much as you can about this author, and to summarize your findings in a 3-5 page paper which includes an annotated bibliography of works by (and, if applicable, about) the author. Use the following questions as your guide: When and where was this author born? If applicable, when did he/she die? What kind of educational background does this author have? What can you find out about this author’s personal life? (family, environment where he/she grew up and/or worked as an adult) What is the author’s area or areas of expertise? What topics is he or she qualified to write about? What has the author in fact written? What is the genre of his/her writing? Fiction/nonfiction? Scientific writing/humanities? etc. Is there a common theme and/or argument in the author’s works? How has this author’s works been received? What kinds of reviews has he/she gotten?

Student Survey The following slides summarize the questions I asked on the survey, and the students’ responses.

The author research assignment helped me to understand the importance of knowing about an author whose works I am using in a paper.

The author research assignment helped me to learn how to find and utilize the library’s printed resources (books and printed journals).

The author research assignment helped me to learn how to utilize the library’s research databases (e.g., Jstor, ProQuest, Contemporary Authors, etc.)

The author research assignment helped me to learn how to put together an annotated bibliography.

The Author Research assignment helped me to understand the importance of reading reviews of an author's works.

The Author Research assignment helped me to learn how to identify a thesis or a common argument in an author's works.

As a result of doing the Author Research assignment, I am better prepared to write a research paper.

The instructions and expectations for the Author Research paper were made clear by my professor.

What was the most important thing you learned from doing the Author Research assignment? You have to look for information, it will not come to you. You have to look past the first hit in a search. I learned that there is a ton of information out there about a certain topic...and if you give it time...writing a research paper isn’t that bad if you complete a good amount of research I really enjoyed doing the author research paper. I felt I learned about so many authors i did not know of, by discussing them all in class. My author wrote popular books and TV. specials though i was unaware that it was him that did these. I really didn't learn that much about writing or researching with this paper. I learned more doing my senior project in high school, where I learned how to do research, annotated bibliographies, our personal reactions to the works, and then a final paper was written in the style that we wanted.

What was the most important thing you learned from doing the Author Research assignment? The most interesting thing that I learned from my author was that she wrote a lot of books and the she is a very intelligent person and very knowledgeable of the background that they studied. How to use the library databases I learned that learning to do good research can be very useful and even interesting if you get the right book or topic. The most important thing that I learned how to do, was to go through the research and pick out the important facts. The most important thing I learned about from the Author Research assignment is how to generate a specific topic to write on.

Are there ways in which you think the Author Research assignment can be improved? Please specify. I think that for the people that had authors that were present on this campus, they should really set up and interview time, that might help with there paper. Give the students better-known authors We could have chosen the author we researched instead of authors being chosen at random. I would have liked an author whose writing I enjoyed, or that wrote more on my field. I think more time would have helped me at least. There was a lot of information on my author and I only could scratch the surface of what he is really talking about.

Are there ways in which you think the Author Research assignment can be improved? Please specify. I think maybe that if you let the students chose their own authors of fiction and non-fiction and let it be approved by the instructor. I believe that the interest that a person already has in an author will drive them to do a better research paper. I don't have any opinions on how the Author Research assignment can be improved. I thought it was a very good assignment...I didn’t mind doing it at all I think that the deadlines could have been more set. For example the research paper that we are doing now, we had to have our topics due a specific date, then our bibliography and then the rough draft and then the final.

What have I learned? The assignment was fairly (if not wildly) successful in achieving its goals. Most students (c. 60%) found it helpful in learning how to use library resources. Most students (91%) found it very useful in learning how to prepare an annotated bibliography. – However, I found the actual bibliographies uneven! Most students (67%) thought the assignment made them better prepared to write a research paper.

What should I change? Give them more guidance in preparing annotated bibliography Let them choose their own authors? – I decided not to do this in the future because it would be too easy to pick familiar authors and not be challenged by the assignment. Other suggestions?