Critical Reading Practice
To get students more comfortable with reading academic writing, have
them practice these skills in small groups in a low-stakes environment.
Hand out a short scholarly source (3 to 5 pages) on an accessible topic and
give them time in class to read it. Then divide them into small groups and
ask them to apply the seven questions presented in the essay to this source.
Once they have done so, they present to the class
their recommendation
about whether the source is credible, and if they would or wouldn’t use it
in their research paper. These presentations typically generate a vibrant
class discussion.
Web source Evaluation Practice
Since most students feel comfortable using the popular Internet to find
sources for their research, offer them an
opportunity to work through
credibility of Internet sources during small group work in class. Ask each
small group to choose a topic (it can be a topic they plan to work with for
their research paper) and conduct an Internet
search for sources on that
topic. Once they have located a source that they believe looks like it has
good information, ask them to locate basic information like the author/
sponsoring organization and publication date. In many cases, this
infor-
mation will be difficult to locate, which not only helps them to prepare for
the challenges they may
face citing Internet sources, but also helps them to
take a second look at the credibility of Internet sources.
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