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information, which is similar to findings stated in Head and Eisenberg’s (2010) paper. Student B’s use of tutor-provided material differs from Student A’s.


Six sources from May were selected for the following criteria: academic, authoritative, two different sources for being reliable, and one for its up-to-date qualities. Sources that were easy-to-read, relevant to the assignment, interesting, easily accessible or recommended, were not used after the second month. Perhaps this is an indication of greater confidence in both source selection and in linguistic ability, which would mark a definite shift in research attitude. Furthermore, this could indicate her sense of subject expertise was greater, an aspect highlighted in the literature (e.g. Zhang et al., 2005, and Rowlands & Nicholas, 2008).


CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS


Locating appropriate sources is crucial for starting the process of writing university assessments. Both students involved in the study encountered difficulty locating appropriate sources. However, the findings suggest that Student A was more confident in using effective strategies to locate scholarly information for assessments earlier in the research. The reasons for Student A’s confidence grew from a combination of three significant factors: tutor support, peer help and self-instruction. As for Student B, it is quite clear the patterns for locating source material became noticeably more efficient in later months as confidence and linguistic abilities grew.


Three suggestions are made for improving students’ ability to choose appropriate source information. Firstly, direct help can be given if module leaders


Deborah Durmus


make simple comprehensive reading lists available. Secondly, faculties can liaise more closely with librarians to establish workshops as integrated provision within the current curriculum. For example, to promote better ways to access primary reading and databases which are relevant to students’ disciplines and the variety of written assessments that they are required to produce. Finally, indirect help can be given by developing reflective activities such as the e-diaries used in this research to provide students with pedagogic scaffolding and the metalanguage necessary to search for sources.


Future research might focus on whether the student’s knowledge-level or cultural background have any implications for source choice. Further research is needed to understand the impact of online searching for sources, particularly as the use of IT platforms are considered normal practice, but novice use may result in too much information. A limitation of this study is that only two cases are considered. Further research would involve a greater number of cases and possibly compare those from different disciplines.


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