A Measure of Success? Utilizing Citation Analysis to Evaluate Consultation Strategies in Oral Communication Courses

This study sought to use citation analysis to gauge the effectiveness of library instruction, in the form of research consultation, for 12 sections of a 100 level Oral Communication course at a small private liberal arts institution. Librarians analyzed the source bibliographies of informative and persuasive speeches in order to determine if students were able to apply strategies from their informative speech consultation to later assignments. This article outlines the strategy used to analyze student sources, issues encountered with citation analysis as a research strategy, and impacts of librarian consultation and faculty influence on the sources that students chose to cite in assignments.