Self Directed Reading #1

Please read the rules about posted assignments before reading onward. 

For the Self Directed Readings, I had to 1) read an article, 2) write a paragraph summary, and 3) write a paragraph of my reactions to the article.  A short but sweet assignment.

In his article “Prove Your Case: A New Approach to Teaching Research Papers,” Stephen Broskoske, an assistant professor in the College Misericordia, explains a new technique for teaching research papers. To get his freshmen students to understand the importance of a specific thesis and sound research, Broskoske now equates a research paper to a lawyer’s preparation for a trial. Lawyers must first decide how to frame their case, as students must figure out how to “define their topic.” Then, as lawyers sift through evidence to prepare their arguments, so do students with their search for sources. The act of writing their paper became their day in court, where they could “present the evidence” they collected from a variety of sources. The “closing statement” to their “case” would be their conclusion, where they would have to summarize their argument and strongly finish their paper (Broskoske 31).

To a librarian instructor in an academic library, this approach to teaching research papers could prove very effective. Broskoske, himself, wrote, that this teaching method works because students can relate to the “high-visibility court cases in the news” (31). The "lawyer arguing a case" method relies on the students’ past experiences with popular court cases to help understand a similar process – writing. Constructivist teaching methods, a topic of last Wednesday's class, relies on the past experiences of a student to help develop new ideas, which the proposed method does. Many popular television shows, such as Law and Order and and The Good Wife, show the same process as the real court cases in the news. As a librarian instructor, I can use these shows the same way Broskoske used court cases, and create a library session framed around an episode of one of these shows and have the students "defend" cases. I would highly recommend library instructors faced with similar challenges to read this article.

Broskoske, S. (2007). "Prove Your Case: A New Approach to Teaching Research Papers." College Teaching 55(1), 31-2.