What I was talking about in that footnote was individual research consultations with thesis-writing seniors, so there’s quite a lot of variability depending on the student and the topic and how far along the research is. We often start discussion where the student is in the research process, what interests him/her about it, what his/her major points are, and how this contributes the field. Typically, these questions end up in fairly long conversations with some literature searching in the middle and often some concept mapping, because almost nobody can answer those questions before the research and writing are pretty far along. But that kind of conversation now forms the basis of my upper level consultations.

Depending on the topic, students might need an introduction to a new tool or new method of searching, and sometimes what it really takes is both of us working on our own computers and saying “Hey, here’s a term I’d never have thought of,” and “have you heard of this researcher?” at each other until we find a foothold in an unfamiliar area.

Formal classes for thesis writers can be very basic or very advanced, depending on the department. Sometimes it’s very explicitly “Here are the basics of navigating our systems. Some of you will know this, but we need to make sure you’re all up to speed as quickly as possible.” Sometimes it’s much more conceptual and starts with much of the class taken up by going around the room and having people say what they’re working on, where they are in the process, and what they’re most worried about, and then building the class off of that last question. (Those can be good bonding experiences where people realize everyone’s kind of lost early on in the process.)

What have you done? I’m always looking for good ideas!

I am curious to learn a bit more about the types of sessions you hold with thesis-writing students. I do a similar thing here every fall with our senior students working on original research, and as you mentioned in your asterisk note, teaching them basic tools and reminding them of basic library resources/services is so demoralizing for everyone involved. Any info you can share about what you do with your students would be a great help!