Students make and revise original work, develop new ways of understanding, and engage in generative and critical problem-solving, often in collaboration with others. Creating work requires both imagination and rigor, as well as the willingness to take risks. Revision is an inherent aspect of the creative process. Revision makes the work the strongest expression of the inquiry and of the subsequent research underlying its creation.
Suggest students contribute to the scholarly conversation in an appropriate forum: blogs, undergraduate research journals, conference presentations or posters.
Choose an autobiography of someone related to the course content. Find secondary sources which deal with an idea or event described in the autobiography. Compose an analysis of the sources, looking for areas where the sources agree or disagree.
What sort of space allows you to do your best and most mindful work? Create the space you need to work productively. Consider what sort of elements make up your ideal work environment: lighting, noise or quiet, a clear space or lots of books and papers at hand, a comfortable chair or a study carrel, etc. Alternatively, try a new study habit and report back on what happened.
Ask students to find several images that would enhance the project or paper on which they are working. Then, ask them to determine which can be used without asking permission. What would they need to do to use this material?
Discuss your scholarly publication process or creative production process with students. Show them your own published articles, performances, or art to describe the process that got them published, performed, or exhibited.
Assign a scholarly article reading before the research assignment has begun. As a class, dissect the parts of the article, its characteristics, and uses. Reflect upon the functional processes the researchers used to create the parts of the article.
Provide students with a source, and ask them to imagine transforming it into another format. Ask them to describe what changes would need to be made, what new information they would need, or what they had to consider for this transformation to happen.
Bring sources from different formats that illustrate different roles in the information cycle. Ask students to describe how each source was created. Ask students to explain differences they observe, as well as probable explanations for the differences.
Explore specific source categories, like primary sources or reference sources, to distinguish them as a unique class of sources. Describe their creation process and discuss their unique uses.
Go to the library with the name of an artist whose work you don’t know. Find a book or online article about the artist’s work. Draw a cartoon that features your discoveries.
Choose a particular artwork and make a copy of it in any way: a drawing, a photograph, a comic, a collage, a painting, etc. Write a paragraph about how your copy is an interpretation of the original.
Go to the library to find something beautiful/terrifying/dangerous/adorable/bizarre. Write a review of what you found, why it fits this description, and what you learned.
Use the library catalog to locate images in books that are not art or photography books.
