Writing from Sources, Writing from Sentences

Abstract

Instead of focusing on students’ citation of sources, educators should attend to the more fundamental question of how well students understand their sources and whether they are able to write about them without appropriating language from the source. Of the 18 student research texts we studied, none included summary of a source, raising questions about the students’ critical reading practices. Instead of summary, which is highly valued in academic writing and is promoted in composition textbooks, the students paraphrased, copied from, or patchwrote from individual sentences in their sources. Writing from individual sentences places writers in constant jeopardy of working too closely with the language of the source and thus inadvertently plagiarizing; and it also does not compel the writer to understand the source.

Why Do Students Plagiarize? Efl Undergraduates’ Views on the Reasons Behind Plagiarism

“…This is in line with the findings of research done in other EFL/ESL contexts (e.g. Howard et al 2010, Li and Casanave 2012, Liao and Tseng 2010, Pecorari 2003. Excellent plagiarism definitions were provided, such as the following:…”

“…Publications that emerge from contexts other than the North-American one underline the need to explore local scenarios as culture and the immediate educational setting may change the way plagiarism is viewed and practiced. Studies also point out that the mere knowledge of the plagiarism policies does not help student in avoiding pitfalls of intentional or unintentional plagiarism, often due to paraphrasing problems that need time and practice to improve (Pecorari 2003, Howard et al 2010, Liao and Tseng 2010, Li and Casanave 2012.…”

Plagiarism in second-language writing

“…However, to the extent that academic discourse skills require development even in the L1, the latter factor makes some of the work on plagiarism in L1 users or Generation 1.5 (Villalva 2006;Howard, Serviss & Rodrigue 2010) relevant to this review as well.…”

Dealing with Students’ Plagiarism Pre-Emptively Through Teaching Proper Information Exploitation

“…Note that patchwriting differs from paraphrasing in that patchwriting is more closely related to the language of the source, where the original text is transformed by erasing words, changing grammatical structures and using synonyms; whereas paraphrasing would be conveying the message from the source in new language, keeping some keywords in (based on Howard et al, 2010, p.181). Patchwriting can sometimes be the result of poor source understanding and unsatisfactory critical reading skills (Howard et al, 2010), leading to the hypothesis that inappropriate practices may well be the result of unsatisfactory writing (or language) skills. EFL/ FFL students in Bulgaria may primarily have problems due to their language proficiency level and writing skills.…”