This dissertation explored how effectively first-year writing (FYW) evaluated and selected sources for their researched writing assignments. Though students were taught how to access sources from the library and offered sources on the course management system, most often they obtained sources via the open internet. As mis- and disinformation…

Critical thinking (CT) is a 21st-century skill critical in education and learning. Second language teaching has focused on language form, and there needs to be a shift from form-focused instruction to a function-focused paradigm, where students simultaneously practice language learning and deal with real-world issues in authentic contexts…

Concerns about the poor quality of students' use of sources in undergraduate research writing have typically led to investigations either of students' information-seeking strategies or of their composing practices. I argue that an either/or approach provides an incomplete picture of students' research writing processes, and that an exploration of…