Textual Appropriation in Engineering Master’s Theses: A Preliminary Study

Abstract

In the thesis literature review, an engineering graduate student is expected to place original research in the context of previous work by other researchers. However, for some students, particularly those for whom English is a second language, the literature review may be a mixture of original writing and verbatim source text appropriated without quotations. Such problematic use of source material leaves students vulnerable to an accusation of plagiarism, which carries severe consequences. Is such textual appropriation common in engineering master's writing? Furthermore, what, if anything, can be concluded when two texts have been found to have textual material in common? Do existing definitions of plagiarism provide a sufficient framework for determining if an instance of copying is transgressive or not? In a preliminary attempt to answer these questions, text strings from a random sample of 100 engineering master's theses from the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database were searched for appropriated verbatim source text using the Google search engine. The results suggest that textual borrowing may indeed be a common feature of the master's engineering literature review, raising questions about the ability of graduate students to synthesize the literature. The study also illustrates the difficulties of making a determination of plagiarism based on simple textual similarity. A context-specific approach is recommended when dealing with any instance of apparent copying.

Students’ views on plagiarism and plagiarism detection systems

“…Seejuures on plagiaat kujunenud üleilmseks probleemiks kõigil kõrgharidustasemetel. Nii on tuvastatud teistest allikatest pärit viitamata teksti veidi enam kui pooltes uuritud magistritöödes (Eckel, 2011) ning ligi pooltes analüüsitud doktoritöödes (Ison, 2012). Uus-Meremaal tehtud uuringuga leiti, et ligi veerand üliõpilaste esitatud töödest sisaldas plagiaati, kuigi enne oli uuritavatele selgitatud nii plagiaadi olemust kui ka plagiaadi vältimise võimalusi (Walker, 2010).…”

Beyond Forms and Manuals: A Sociocognitive Approach to Academic Citation in Novice EFL Researchers' Writing

“…In particular, [15] highlights the inherent difficulties in making a determination of plagiarism based on simple text matching between cited words and source texts.…”

“…Existing scholarship towards citation practices can actually be quite problematic given the number of factors that guide citation practices of novice writers, particularly without adopting a context-specific approach [15] [16] [17] [18]. Novice writers may carry certain distinctive features.…”

Textual Appropriation and Attribution in Engineering Theses and Dissertations: An Exploratory Study

“…The basic methodology for this study was adapted from an earlier pilot study by this researcher. 43 The author obtained from the ProQuest database company an Excel spreadsheet of all the English language theses and doctoral dissertations with a completion date of 2009 that included the subject heading "engineering" and were available as full text Adobe PDFs in the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. This initial spreadsheet included 727 master's theses and 6298 doctoral dissertations.…”

“…Conversely, Gilmore et al 25 found that engineering graduate students were less likely to plagiarize in research proposals than students in other science and technology fields. Eckel 43 used Google to search strings of text from 100 engineering master's theses, finding 28 theses with copied sections over 50 words in a row, seven of which had copied more than a page total verbatim. Finally, Vieyra et al, 44 in a follow-up to the Gilmore et al 25 study, looked at plagiarism in 115 graduate research proposals.…”