Jenni Yanagihara

LIS 560A Training Module Part A

Writing skills for college freshman

In this paper, I will discuss freshman writing skills as the topic of my instructional
session. Teaching writing skills is of great interest to me, since I majored in English for my
bachelors degree, and spent some time as a tutor at the universitys writing center. We tutored
students of all levels, up to PhD candidates, and many of them struggled with writing issues that
should have been taught to them in English 100. It became clear that students need to develop
good writing skills at the freshman level, so that they can advance through their education and
communicate higher levels of thinking without writing composition problems getting in their
way. The audience for this lesson is college freshman, and from here I will discuss this group,
their social characteristics, and their general information needs and information seeking behavior.
Target group: College freshman
College freshman are defined by being in a state of transition: they are adjusting to
changes in both their academic and social life. Often, freshman struggle to transition while being
robbed of a comfortable environment as well as friends, family, good food, and familiar
surroundings (Perrin 1982, p.405). This struggle can cause the freshman to be anxious and
disorganized; and although the mature college student has reached balance and harmony in their
academic progress, freshman often lack enough experience to reach this state and are still
working to bring order out of the confusion of experiences and stimuli and are experiencing
some level of mental disarray (Perrin p.408). Despite these disadvantages, freshman can be
excellent students because they are anxious to learn, eager, unspoiled, and self-determined

willing to be in college despite financial worries (Haber 1941), and nowadays, the common
necessity to work one or two jobs while being a student to pay for their education.
In terms of nationwide demographics, according to a 2010 survey conducted by the
Higher Education Research Institute of UCLA, college freshman in the US are slightly more
likely to be female, are about 70% Caucasian and 30% minority, overwhelmingly come from
college educated parents (80%) who made an annual income above the poverty line (86%), and
almost half are planning to get at least a masters degree (41%).
Information needs
Although freshman enter college at varying levels of information literacy depending on
the preparation they received in high school, they typically have a significant need to learn about
academic research and academic writing tools. A study conducted by Sue Samson and Michelle
Millet in 2003 showed that freshman writers often need to do research to supplement what they
know about the writing process, such as finding out how to develop a thesis statement and
finding appropriate sources to back up their thesis (88). Additionally, freshman struggle with
selecting a good topic and building search strategies (89). Similarly, while working with
prospective college students, Robert Perrin found in 1982 that they demonstrated a strong need
to learn research skills and how to establish a writing stance, but did not show a strong need to
learn mechanics (411). Ideally, freshman writers learn all these skills in the classroom, but this is
often not the case: even in Harvard, students can feel that they are asked to build a house
without any tools in their first year of college (Sommers and Saltz, 2004, p. 131). If freshman
writers fail to acquire the information needs necessary to develop college-level writing skills,
they will be left struggling to construct academic essays with high-school level writing tools.

Information seeking behaviors

The information seeking behavior of freshman can be broadly characterized as
problematic: writing instructor Lee Bessette complains on her blog (2014) that freshman are
easily discouraged and unwilling to learn, explore, and play with new technology and
information. Despite the fact that most students have the technological literacy to navigate their
personal life online, Bessette laments that they lack the information literacy skills or motivation
necessary to improve their skills or even complete their assignments. Bessettes students gave
up instead of conducting simple research to solve information problems like how to set up a blog,
or how to recover a lost password. However, rather than implying that freshman are easily
discouraged because they are lazy, as Bessette does, it might be wiser to consider observations
like Perrins: that freshman are anxious, disorganized, and out of their comfort zone. Thus, the
information seeking behavior of freshman can be generalized as needing extra guidance and
being easily discouraged.
A more detailed look into the information seeking behavior of freshman writers was done
by Olsen and Diekama of the Instructional Technology & Learning Sciences of Utah State
University in 2012. Olsen and Diekama found that freshman do indeed have the tendency to lack
persistence in their information searches, and are resistant to new ways of searching. Overall,
freshman prefer information sources and methods that are comfortable, familiar, and convenient.
Freshmen much prefer digital information resources over print and interpersonal ones, with a
significant aversion to consulting faculty and librarians, although they will occasionally consult
their peers (p.2). Freshmen also lack variety in search styles and source types, are unlikely to
reformulate their searches if the initial results are inadequate, and are very likely to stop their

search if they reach an amount of information they perceive is sufficient, rather than evaluating a
large body of information and choosing the most relevant pieces from it (p.3).
Information literacy skills
Based on the wide range of information needs of freshmen combined with their general
reluctance to use unfamiliar research tools and strategies, their successful development as writers
is heavily dependent on trying new things rather than sticking to the familiar and convenient.
Freshman writers need to move beyond the quick and shallow Google searches that they used in
high school, and develop new search strategies to fill their knowledge gaps and satisfy the
research necessary to perform writing at the academic level. Listed below are some of the
information needs of freshman writers and the information literacy skills that are necessary for
satisfying these needs.
NEED: Finding information about the writing process.
SKILL: The ability to conduct independent research and utilize interpersonal resources like
faculty and librarians.

NEED: Finding appropriate sources to support their thesis.

SKILL: The ability to conduct thorough research and accurately assess the quality of an
information source.

NEED: Build effective search strategies.

SKILL: The ability to reformulate searches if necessary and adapt to search platforms or
mediums that are unfamiliar.

Bibliography
Besette, L. (2012, February 12). What Can We Teach in Freshman Writing? | College Ready
Writing @insidehighered. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/what-canwe-teach-freshman-writing
Haber, T. (1941). Vive Freshman Composition!. College English, 3(3), 291-293. Retrieved
October 19, 2014, from the JSTOR database.
Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA. (2011). The American Freshman: National
Norms Fall 2010 (January 2011). Retrieved from
http://www.heri.ucla.edu/PDFs/pubs/briefs/HERI_ResearchBrief_Norms2010.pdf
Olsen, M., & Diekama, A. (2012). "I just Wikipedia it": Information behavior of first-year
writing students. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and
Technology, 49(1). doi:10.1002/meet.14504901176
Perrin, R. (1982). With Reason and Less Pain: Preparing High-School Students for Freshman
Composition. College English, 44(4), 405-412. Retrieved October 19, 2014, from the
JSTOR database.
Samson, S., & Millet, M. S. (2003). The learning environment: First-year students, teaching
assistants, and information literacy. Research Strategies, 19, 84-98.
doi:10.1016/j.resstr.2004.02.001
Sommers, N., & Saltz, L. (2004). The Novice as Expert: Writing the Freshman Year. College
Comprehension and Communication, 56(1), 124-149. doi:10.2307/4140684

Survey
Access Link: https://catalyst.uw.edu/webq/survey/jenniky/250772
Research Strategies of Freshman Writers
Question 1.
What level of expertise do you think you have with conducting research for class
assignments?
Required.
Beginner
Intermediate
Expert

Question 2.
If you have a question about writing an essay, which of the following sources are you most
likely to consult FIRST? Check ONE RESPONSE.
Required.
Classmates/peers
Academic search platform or database, e.g. EBSCO, JSTOR, ERIC, etc.
Instructor
Library/Librarian
Textbook/Assigned reading materials
Google/Other search engine
Other:

Question 3.
If you have a question about writing an essay, which of the following sources are you most
likely to consult FIRST? Check ONE RESPONSE.
Required.
Academic search platform or database, e.g. EBSCO, JSTOR, ERIC, etc.
Classmates/peers
Google/Other search engine

Instructor
Textbook/Assigned reading materials
Library/Librarian
Other:

Question 4.
If you need to conduct research for an assignment, which source are you likely to use
FIRST? Check ONE RESPONSE.
Required.
Library/Librarian
Google/Other search engine
Academic search platform or database, e.g. EBSCO, JSTOR, ERIC, etc.
Wikipedia/Other encyclopedia
Instructor
Textbook/Assigned reading materials
Other:

Question 5.
If you need to conduct research for an assignment, which sources are you likely to use?
Check ALL THAT APPLY.
Required.
Wikipedia/Other encyclopedia
Google/Other search engine
Academic search platform or database, e.g. EBSCO, JSTOR, ERIC, etc.
Library/Librarian
Textbook/Assigned reading materials
Instructor
Other:

Question 6.

Please select whether you agree or disagree with each of the following statements. If you
neither agree or disagree, or feel that it doesn't apply to you, select "N/A or unsure."
Required.
True False N/A or unsure
I refuse to give up on a search even if I don't get good results right away
I rephrase my online searches if I don't get good results
I use resources that are new or unfamiliar to me while doing research
I stop searching if I find enough results to fulfill an assignment's requirement
I find academic research to be very daunting
I prefer being given very specific instructions rather than looking up how to do something
I feel that high school has adequately prepared me for writing at the college level