Submitted by: Jennifer Dorner

At this web site: http://library.stmarys-ca.edu/services/faculty-staff/projects/topicdevelopment/index.html, you can find documents related to the following research study that was the subject of a poster at ACRL. Here is the description that appears at the site:

The Topic Developed Phase of Research Study focuses on one class of freshmen composition students at Saint Mary's College. The researchers looked at how students developed their topics over a two week period, from the time they received the assignment, which was to explore the impact of an American Icon or product on another country, to the time they turned in a proposal outlining their topic with a bibliography of several sources. The researchers collected structured journal entries recording work students did in developing and researching their topics. A beginning free-write and the final proposals were also collected and focus groups were held after the proposals had been turned in. Researchers had six volunteers who also completed three "think alouds" over the two weeks, saying their thoughts aloud and recording them for a one hour periods as they worked on their topics. All this data was then analyzed and recommendations were made about instruction, faculty-librarian collaboration and further research