Description of course:
RUSS 305/COMP 305: "Dostoevsky and His Age" is a seminar devoted to the writing of a single author. Although the course has no prerequisites, it has a relatively heavy reading load, and I require that the students write three short papers, review a scholarly article, and research a topic for their final paper for the course. 14 students enrolled in the course last fall, and with the help of Lori DuBois and Christine Ménard, I redesigned the writing and research assignments so that they would focus not only on developing interesting arguments about Dostoevsky's writing, but also on acquiring basic skills to research 19th-century Russian literature and culture.
Structure of writing and research assignments:
I ordered the writing and research assignment on the assumption that students had never conducted research before. Early in the semester, Christine Menard gave the class an orientation to the library web site and those resources that would be most relevant to their work. As a result, every student practiced using FRANCIS and the MLA database at least once before conducting their own research. The class handout further describes the writing and research assignments.
Successes of the course:
I was pleased by the ordering of the research and writing assignment, which indeed compelled students to acquire and practice every skill they would need before beginning their final research paper for the course. While students might not have fully understood an initial assignment (for example, how to use secondary sources or write an annotated bibliography), they all did an adequate job of using sources and researching their topics by the time of the final paper. In addition, I continue to believe that making the students not only read, but also review a scholarly article, helps them to develop a critical approach to the sources they're using.
Things that could be improved:
Christine's orientation to the resources was well designed and contained precisely the information that students needed. However, I continue to wonder about the timing of this workshop in my course. Those student who have done research in the past always pay more attention during these orientations, since the information that Christine conveys speaks to their experience in the past and assignments in the future. Yet those student most in need of the information in the orientation find this particular class session less than engaging, since the information seems purely theoretical and it's not clear to them how useful this will be in just a short time. I think it would be better to time Christine's presentation immediately before a research assignment in future versions of this course.
In addition, I would like to have more class sessions with a reference librarian, but I'm reluctant to give up any more days of our class to this. Since the semesters at Williams are so short and we have so much Dostoevsky to read, every day of discussion feels precious, and I would prefer to have extra sessions with a reference librarian outside of our regular class schedule.