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The piece critiques common approaches to teaching source evaluation and argues for teaching BEAM to students who may struggle to use a source effectively after locating it. It includes a lesson plan as supplemental materials and highlights BEAM’s metacognitive demands. 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It categorizes the rhetorical positions of authors to help students assess and use sources based on author intention and purpose.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How does the article critique traditional source evaluation teaching?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"It critiques common methods of teaching source evaluation, especially approaches that emphasize mechanics or one-shot sessions, arguing that students need support to use sources effectively after finding them.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What evaluation methods does BEAM compare with or complement?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"The article presents BEAM as complementary to methods such as CRAAP and the Five Ws, and it argues that combining source use and evaluation strategies supports ACRL Framework knowledge practices.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},599290,1792167522,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":19,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},3985747859154,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c","Communications in Information Literacy  \n\n| Volume 15  Issue 2 | Article 5 |\n| --- | --- |\n| 12-2021\u003Cbr>BEAM Me Up: Teaching Rhetorical Methods for Source Use and Synthesis\u003Cbr>Ashley Roach-Freiman\u003Cbr>University of Memphis, [amroach@memphis.edu](amroach@memphis.edu)\u003Cbr>Follow this and additional works at: [https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/comminfolit](https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/comminfolit)\u003Cbr> Part of the Information Literacy Commons\u003Cbr>Let us know how access to this document benefits you. |  |\n\nRecommended Citation  \nRoach-Freiman, A. (2021) . BEAM Me Up: Teaching Rhetorical Methods for Source Use and Synthesis.  \nCommunications in Information Literacy, 15 (2), 227–239 . [https://doi.org/10.15760/](https://doi.org/10.15760/)[ ](https://doi.org/10.15760/)[comminfolit.2021.15.2.5](comminfolit.2021.15.2.5)  \nThis open access Innovative Practice is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4 .0) . All documents in PDXScholar should meet accessibility standards. If we can make this document more accessible to you, contact our team.  \nBEAM Me Up: Teaching Rhetorical Methods for Source Use and Synthesis  \nAshley Roach-Freiman, University of Memphis  \nAbstract  \nBEAM is a schema for categorizing the rhetorical positions of authors according to the author’s intention or purpose of the information. This Innovative Practices piece critiques common methods of teaching source evaluation and proposes that instruction librarians teach BEAM to students who may struggle using a source once they have located it. A lesson plan is included as supplemental materials.  \nKeywords: BEAM, source evaluation, one-shot instruction, checklists, source synthesis  \nInnovative Practices  \nedited by Andrea Baer, Carolyn Gamtso, and Merinda McLure  \nRoach-Freiman, A. (2021). BEAM me up: Teaching rhetorical methods for source use and synthesis. Communications in Information Literacy, 15(2), 227–239.  \nBEAM Me Up: Teaching Rhetorical Methods for Source Use and Synthesis  \nThe University of Memphis (UM) Libraries’ Instructional Services (IS) department recommends using the BEAM schema, created by Joseph Bizup, as a strategy for teaching students how to assess sources for usefulness alongside the more traditional one-shot instruction session focusing on search strategies. BEAM is an acronym that stands for Background, Exhibit, Argument, Method. Students classify sources in readings or research according to this schema. BEAM requires metacognition, or the student’s ability to reflect on their own critical reading and source choice, making it a good supplement to evaluation methods such as CRAAP or the Five Ws. Combining source use and evaluation strategies supports the knowledge practices in the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. This paper argues for BEAM as a supplement to other source evaluation methods, outlines its schema and theory, describes how UM librarians incorporated a lesson plan based on BEAM into their standard teaching practice, and discusses an assessment strategy.  \nChecklists, Source Classification, and Source Evaluation  \nFirst-year students are often stymied by the challenges presented in research and writing. Insua et al. (2018) found that students struggled to parse scholarly jargon and tended to rely on patchwriting and other strategies to meet the requirements of assignments without learning to read critically and deeply. The Citation Project ([http://www.citationproject.net](http://www.citationproject.net)) has conducted important work mining student citation practices, raising a bevy of studies that critique the pedagogical imperative to focus on the mechanics of citation rather than critical reading and summarizing. However, Troutman and Mullen (2015) criticized the Citation Project for elevating summarizing as a critical skill without acknowledging that summarizing is no replacement for the more essential task of sy","cbCaiqX5IHoyglOl","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiqX5IHoyglOl","pdf",169636,14,"English","# Abstract\n## BEAM schema and critique of common evaluation teaching\n## Checklists, source classification, and source evaluation\n## CRAAP and limitations for diverse source types\n## BEAM as a supplement to existing methods","[{\"question\":\"What does the BEAM schema stand for, and what is it used for?\",\"answer\":\"BEAM stands for Background, Exhibit, Argument, and Method. It categorizes the rhetorical positions of authors to help students assess and use sources based on author intention and purpose.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the article critique traditional source evaluation teaching?\",\"answer\":\"It critiques common methods of teaching source evaluation, especially approaches that emphasize mechanics or one-shot sessions, arguing that students need support to use sources effectively after finding them.\"},{\"question\":\"What evaluation methods does BEAM compare with or complement?\",\"answer\":\"The article presents BEAM as complementary to methods such as CRAAP and the Five Ws, and it argues that combining source use and evaluation strategies supports ACRL Framework knowledge practices.\"}]","BEAM Me Up - Teaching Rhetorical Methods for Source Use and Synthesis | PDF",1792088500,35]