Action:

• Pick a sufficiently narrow topic or term and ask students to:
  • identify 3 articles that are likely to be relevant to that topic
  • list which database(s) they used and why they found those databases appropriate
  • list their search terms
  • provide the bibliographic information, properly formatted, for all 3 articles
• Build on the former activity by asking students to read and summarize the abstracts of the papers they found during their research process.
• An alternative assignment: after students have written a brief response paper to an issue, text, artwork, etc. ask them to write a second paper, based on their research of the issue/text/artwork, in which they
  • choose 2 or 3 sources
  • summarize the views in those sources
  • properly cite those sources
  • and state how their own views are in line with or contrary to the scholarly views.

Reason:

• An assignment that makes the steps of a research process explicit helps students better master these skills.