This study aims at a theoretical discussion of what is perceived as a dominating strand in the information literacy narrative. The basis for the theoretical discussion is an empirical investigation of design engineering and nursing students’ information use in connection to Bachelor thesis writing. A critical discourse analysis is performed on student theses together with the directives that the students have followed when writing. The theses are also analysed from a sociocultural perspective, with the notion of community of practice and the concept of cognitive authority as complementary tools. An academic discourse is the most prevalent in the nursing student theses. The design engineering students write in another discourse than the expected academic discourse, which poses problems for them. The analysis based upon a sociocultural perspective indicates that information use and thesis writing are used as mediating tools as students strive to form an identity fitting for the community of practice they gradually become members of. It is, furthermore, concluded that information literacy in this setting is an embedded capacity to understand and be familiar with how information is produced, sought, used, and valued in a certain practice.