That's What She Said: An Introduction to the Information Cycle & Citation Chasing

Learning Objectives

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

1. Describe the information cycle and how different source types emerge over time following an event or discovery
2. Navigate the library discovery tool and Google Scholar to locate articles and books
3. Perform backward and forward citation chasing to identify related sources
4. Create a properly formatted MLA Works Cited page with hanging indents
5. Articulate the academic, professional, and ethical reasons for citing sources

The Activity

Students trace the scholarly conversation by chasing citations both backward (to a source's influences) and forward (to its impact). Using library discovery tools and Google Scholar's "Cited by" feature, students follow one source through time and compile their findings into a properly formatted MLA Works Cited page.

Anchored by the ACRL Framework frames Scholarship as Conversation and Searching as Strategic Exploration, the lesson emphasizes that research is messy, nonlinear, and iterative—and that no source exists in isolation.

The activity includes curated sources spanning ten disciplines, making it adaptable for first-year seminars, composition courses, one-shots, or discipline-specific instruction. Sources marked with an asterisk (*) require advanced searching techniques, allowing for scaffolded difficulty.

Total Time: 50–75 minutes (flexible; components can be used independently)

Why "That's What She Said"?

The title is a deliberate double entendre. On one level, it's a playful nod to the well-known comedic phrase—a bit of humor designed to make research feel more approachable. On another, it serves as a reminder that scholarship has always been shaped by women's voices, even when those contributions have gone uncredited or overlooked. The title invites students to think about who is speaking in the scholarly conversation—and whose words get carried forward.