Using Zotero, we put together a digital repository of source material that you might bring into the College Writing 1 classroom as you prepare students for their research projects. In this repository you’ll find scholarship as well as primary source material of all kinds (data & stats, historical documents, talks, infographics, interviews, etc.). These items represent good examples of what you might use in class or assign as reading in order to supplement essasys in the Writer's Presence or the autobiography.
These supplements can fill the sometimes vacant weeks when you’re directing individual projects but uncertain what to read, but they can also be useful early in the semester as you gradually introduce good research habits. You might read Gatto's "Against School" and introduce some stats from the DofE. Or evaluate a scholarly source on student boredom that models for them how academic work should look (rather than how Gatto writes). Or read an interview with Gatto, or a review one of the sources he cites, or introduce a curricular plan that speaks to his recommendations. Such activities might open new avenues for students in their own projects as you model how to responsibly use good sources.
All projects will still rely mainly on peer-reviewed scholarship, but primary and historical sources can provide anchors for inquiry, objects for analysis, and fresh material that will bolster students’ authority in an existing academic conversation.
This repository is NOT intended for you to share publicly or uncritically with students. We’re not trying to do the research for them, so please never give them access to the group or spoon feed them what you find here. None of us, however, feel particularly qualified to direct a project on subjects we know little about (too often the case with WP essays). Familiarizing yourself with some of this stuff might help you give better guidance.
Here is a screen shot of the Zotero repository that gives you a sense of its content:
Zotero is a free and easy-to-use research tool that helps you collect, organize, and analyze research and lets you share it in a variety of ways. Zotero includes the best parts of older reference manager software — the ability to store author, title, and publication fields and to export that information as formatted references — and the best aspects of modern software and web applications, such as the ability to organize, tag, and search in advanced ways.
We find the software especially useful for this repository because it not only stores bibliographic information, but in many cases we have attached the full text of a given document to that citation. You can easily sort through folders or search by color-coded tags.
And did we mention it's FREE!? You can use it for your own research while being able to access the CW1 folder from anywhere.
For more information on Zotero, visit their homepage:
To gain access to the CW1 research material, first you'll need to sign up for Zotero (don't worry, it's free!). Do so here:
Once you've joined, you can search for "CW1 Research Material" under the "Groups" tab. Membership to our group is "closed," so you'll need to click the "join group" button to submit your request for access.
We'll approve your request within a few hours, after which you'll have full access to the materials.
Like our Library Bag of Tricks, Zotero is meant to be a collaborative effort. If you have research material, articles, websites, etc. that have worked well in your CW1 class, you should share them with us! We'll deposit them into the repository so that all instructors can benefit from your success. If we all contribute, eventually we'll have a robust repository of materials that you can pull from during the course of the semester to meet your goals of introducing students to research methods.
You won't be able to add material directly through Zotero, so if you have something to share, send it directly to us:
Peter: pfmonaha@wustl.edu
Kris: helbling@wustl.edu