Writing from Sources, Writing from Sentences
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/wap.v2i2.177Keywords:
plagiarism, student research, composition instruction, writing from sources, summary, paraphrase, quotation, copying, patchwritingAbstract
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.
References
Bainbridge, R. (2007) Recycling plastic. Ezine Articles. Retrieved 8 April 2007 from http://ezinearticles.com/?Recycling-Plastic&id=354295
BBC News (30 June 2004) “Epidemic” of student cheating? Retrieved 30 June 2004 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/3854465.stm
Broaddus, M. and Ku, L. (6 December 2000) Nearly 95 percent of low-income uninsured children now are eligible for Medicaid or SCHIP: Measures need to increase enrolment among eligible but uninsured children. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Retrieved 16 July 2007 from http://www.cbpp.org/12–6-00schip.htm
Brown, A. and Day, J. D. (1983) Macrorules for summarizing texts: The development of expertise. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 22: 1–14.
Callahan, D. (2004) The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead. New York: Harcourt.
Citation Project (2010) Retrieved 8 July 2010 from CitationProject.net.
Council of Writing Program Administrators (2005) Defining and avoiding plagiarism: The WPA statement on best practices. Retrieved 22 June 2008 from http://wpacouncil.org/node/9
Cox, L., Ray, J., and Lawler, K. (28 October 2004) What can consumer health assistance programs and states DO to improve Medicaid and SCHIP enrollment and retention. Families USA. Retrieved 16 July 2007 from http://www.familiesusa.org/issues/medicaid/making-it-work-for-consumers/improving-medicaid-and-schip.html
Harris, J. (2006) Rewriting: How to Do Things with Words. Logan: Utah State University Press.
Howard, R. (1993) A plagiarism pentimento. Journal of Teaching Writing 11(3): 233–46.
Jamieson, S. (2008) One size does not fit all: Plagiarism across the curriculum. In R. M. Howard and A. E. Robillard (eds.) Pluralizing Plagiarism: Identities, Contexts, Pedagogies 77–91. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Boynton-Cook.
Keck, C. (2006) The use of paraphrase in summary writing: A comparison of L1 and L2 writers. Journal of Second Language Writing 15: 261–278.
Lincoln, Abraham (19 November 1863) Gettysburg Address. American Rhetoric Online Speech Bank. Retrieved 8 August 2009 from http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/gettysburgaddress.htm
Pecorari, D. (2003) Good and original: Plagiarism and patchwriting in academic secondlanguage writing. Journal of Second Language Writing 12: 317–345.
Pecorari, D. (2006) Visible and occluded citation features in postgraduate secondlanguage writing. English for Specific Purposes 25: 4–29.
Pecorari, D. (2008) Academic Writing and Plagiarism: A Linguistic Analysis. New York: Continuum.
Roessig, L. (March 2007) Making research matter. English Journal 96(4): 50–55.
Roig, M. (2001) Plagiarism and paraphrasing criteria of college and university professors. Ethics & Behavior 11(3): 307–324.
Sherrard, C. (1986) Summary writing: A topographical study. Written Communication 3: 324–343.
Shi, L. (2004) Textual borrowing in second-language writing. Written Communication 21(2): 171–200.
Weinberger, D. (2002) Small Pieces Loosely Joined: A Unified Theory of the Web. Cambridge: Perseus.
West, L. (2007) How to recycle different types of plastic. About.com. Retrieved 1 June 2007 from http://environment.about.com/od/earthtalkcolumns/a/recycleplastics.htm
White, H. (2004) Citation analysis and discourse analysis revisited. Applied Linguistics 25(1): 89–116.