In a Research-Writing Frame of Mind

Librarians have been coordinating with composition instructors to offer information literacy instruction in composition classrooms long enough that it can no longer be considered a new trend, but rather a standard feature of many information literacy programs. Sometimes this collaboration comes in the form of a one-shot, sometimes the librarian is embedded, and sometimes the librarian is a co-instructor. Information literacy and composition are often intertwined in higher education; recently, the professional organizations associated with writing programs and with information literacy programs have developed documents to define the characteristics, habits and dispositions of successful students. The documents, the Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing and the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, lay out frames that describe students who write and manage information well. The publication of these two Frameworks provides an opportunity for practitioners to examine the relationship between writing and information literacy, what writing instructors often refer to as research-writing skills. Intended for librarians and composition instructors, this book chapter examines how teachers of writing and research skills can enhance their understanding of the two Frameworks as being similar and linked with one another, and by doing so become more effective teachers. This chapter makes the intersections of information-using and writing that exist implicitly in practice explicit for students as it explores ways to better integrate writing and research instruction in composition and information literacy classrooms. It does so by looking at how the intersections between the Frameworks inform writing and library instruction pedagogy providing examples of writing and information-using assignments based on the Frameworks