1. Disciplinary Literacy :
A Context for Learning Critical Information Literacy
LILAC Workshop ‐ April 11, 2012
Dr. Nancy C. DeJoy
Sara D. Miller
Benjamin M. Oberdick
East Lansing, Michigan, USA

2. Framing the Context
• What is First Year Writing?
• What is Disciplinary Literacy?
• Why evaluation vs. analysis?

3. Assignment Goals
• Writing about writing requires analysis
• Inquiry = responding to sources vs. summarizing
them
• Pedagogical philosophy comes from an analytical
standpoint

4. Common Evaluative Criteria
Scope
Authority
Purpose
Objectivity
Efficiency
Currency
Misinformation
Coverage
Uniqueness
Accuracy
Choice
Citations
Appropriateness
Author
Detail
Reliability

5. Cart before the horse?
• Language focuses on quality (i.e. a “good” source)
• Can we judge the quality of a source (evaluate)
before understanding what it is (analysis)?
• Bloom’s Taxonomy
• Jumping to conclusions can undercut development
of analytical skills and misses opportunity for
transfer of learning

6. Is it “Good?” or What is it?
Evaluation Analysis
Quality Context
Is it reliable? Why is it important?
What is my purpose? What is the author’s
purpose?
Impersonal Artifactual
Answers Questions
“Information is constructed and contested, not
monolithic and apolitical.*”
(*Simmons, M.H., 2005. Librarians as Disciplinary Discourse Mediators: Using Genre Theory to Move Toward Critical Information Literacy. portal: Libraries and the Academy,
5(3), pp.297–311.)

7. Introduction to RAIDS
and application to texts
Purpose, choice: Revision
Scope, detail: Arrangement
Authority, citations, accuracy: Invention
Efficacy, currency, reliability: Delivery
Appropriateness, detail: Style

8. Activity
Individually: Take a few minutes to write down the
current evaluative criteria that you use in a
specific teaching context. (1 minute)
Small groups:
1. Share your criteria with the other members of
your group. (3 minutes)
2. Ask the following question: How could we
change our criteria to focus on analysis? (5
minutes)
3. Select a particular activity you do with students.
Brainstorm a list of criteria you could use to move
a particular activity from evaluation to analysis.
(10 minutes)

9. It’s not either-or…
• Sound analysis will enable better evaluation.
• The evaluative criteria still matter, but within the
context of analysis.
• Focusing on analysis enables transfer of learning and
makes every article useful to writers even if what
they learn is what not to do or what sources not to
use

10. Summary: How Things Line Up
Goals of Writing Analyzing
Assignment Information Sources
• Rhetorical analysis • Source analysis
• RAIDS criteria for • RAIDS criteria for
own work others' work
• Inquiry, not • Questions before
summary answers

11. Sign up for consultations :
Dr. Nancy C. DeJoy
Associate Professor: Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures
Michigan State University
East Lansing, Michigan USA
dejoy@msu.edu
Sara D. Miller
Head of Information Literacy
Michigan State University Libraries
East Lansing, Michigan USA
smiller@mail.lib.msu.edu
Benjamin M. Oberdick
Information Literacy Librarian
Michigan State University Libraries
East Lansing, Michigan USA
oberdic1@mail.lib.msu.edu