Use Of Source Texts Research Articles

Uncovering the dimensionality of authorial voice in the integrated writing task: A confirmatory factor analysis study

Research has long noted the importance of establishing an authorial voice as a hallmark of academic writing. However, despite purported connections between academic writing and integrated writing tasks (Gebril & Plakans, 2014; Huang & Hung, 2013), little attention has been paid to examine the role and effect of authorial voice on writing quality in a test task that involves use of source texts. The primary intent of this study is to shed light on the internal structure of authorial voice in an integrated reading-to-write task by way of Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). The participants of this study included 315 Chinese college-level EFL students who wrote for a task addressing the topic of “eating for professional situations”. Based on an analytic rubric developed by the researchers with indicators informed by Hyland's (2005) interactional framework of authorial voice, the collected essays were rated on a scale of 1–5 based on the quality as it pertains to each of the indicators under the rubric. The results of a model comparison approach to CFA suggested that the current data are best characterized as a unidimensional construct; it represents one single factor. Furthermore, the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis indicated verbatim source use is inversely associated with quality of authorial voice, corroborating our hypothesis that improper source copying negatively influences the rater's perception of a test-taker's authorial voice. Practical implications regarding rubric use and instruction are discussed.

Sensitizing Citing Practices of Graduate Students of TEFL in Academic Summary Writing

This study investigates how sensitizing graduate L2 students about source-text use might affect their citation practices. Two summary writing tasks involving two similar published articles, one irrelevant and one pertinent to source-text use, were assigned individually to 16 graduate English language teaching students from Iran. After completing the tasks, the students participated in retrospective interviews about their source-text use. Recursive thematic data analysis indicated that while they were inclined towards more direct source-text use in the first summary, they opted for more indirect and academic source-text use that involved their contribution and interpretation in the sensitizing task. The paper discusses the significance of sensitizing students to source-text use.

MISCOMMUNICATING PLAGIARISM IN SWEDISH SCHOOLS

Although plagiarism has a much longer history, many teachers of English have noticed that the amount of copying has increased alongside the use of the Internet. The paper begins with a review of the literature demonstrates that although much attention has been paid to undergraduates in academic environments, little attention has been paid to plagiarism in schools. Other studies indicate that plagiarism is more common when people are writing in their L2, and when working with online sources. Combined, the review suggests that studies of L2 plagiarism in schools are needed, particularly studies where pupils are working with English language online sources.The paper reports on a study in which pupils aged 14-17 in Swedish secondary schools were interviewed about the use of source texts in an English lesson. Their teachers and High School teachers were also interviewed. A phenomenological analysis of the interviews revealed a mismatch between the teachers’ instructions, the pupils’ understanding of the instructions and the teachers’ interpretation of copying behaviour. The pupils’ opinions were mostly based on the pedagogical reasons given by their teachers to explain why they should not copy other people’s work, rather than on ideas related to the ownership of ideas. The teachers primarily understood the activities in terms of cheating and laziness.

Examining EFL learners’ source text use in summary writing

To avoid plagiarism, students have to learn the appropriate and effective ways of source text use, such as paraphrasing, summarizing, and citation. However, few studies have investigated how learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) employ copy and paraphrase as source text use strategies in completing writing tasks involving reading material, and how characteristics of the reading material, such as genre, affect such use. This article reports an empirical study that attempted to address the issue. Eighty students from an undergraduate program of a Chinese university wrote summaries for a narrative text and an expository text. Their drafts and the source texts are compared to identify instances of retention of strings of words from sources. Analysis of the summary scripts showed that participants heavily relied on the source texts when writing summaries. The expository text elicited a larger proportion of words than the narrative text in total text borrowed, and the former also led the participants to stronger reliance on its surface structure than the latter. The less proficient group used Exact Copy more but Paraphrase less than the more proficient group. Higher level of source use – Major Paraphrase and Maximal Paraphrase – seems to be immune to changes in terms of genre of source text and language proficiency. Implications of these findings are discussed with reference to the teaching, learning, and assessing appropriate source text use of university level EFL learners.

The Influence of Reading Texts on L2 Reading-to-Write Argumentative Writing.

Reading-to-write is an essential skill in academic writing, and reading-writing tasks have been widely adopted in standardized English tests. Much more recent literature on integrated reading-writing tasks has focused on writers’ use of source texts or the validity of integrated writing assessment, while little is known about whether the nature of the types of reading texts has any bearing on integrated reading-writing tasks. This study examines whether the types of reading texts (i.e., similar views or opposing views on a debatable issue) have any influence on second language (L2) students’ argumentative writing in terms of the use of argument elements and its overall quality. Fifty-four Chinese second-year university students majoring in English language teaching were asked to write an argumentative essay after reading texts with either similar views or opposing views. Results show that students reading texts with opposing viewpoints presented more data and higher overall quality of argumentative essays than students reading texts with similar viewpoints, although the latter group presented more counterargument data. Pedagogical implications on teaching argumentative writing are discussed.

Literatury staropolskiej „budowa ciała” i „usposobienie, temperament”

The text is a review of the Dariusz Śnieżko’s book Kompleksja literatury. Studia staropolskie (The Complexion of Literature. Old-Polish Studies) (TAiWPN UNIVERSITAS, Krakow 2019). The only serious doubt regards the sound of the title (readers might not know the word “complexion”). Kompleksja literatury is a fascinating book. For whom? – certainly students of Old-Polish literature (and it will be also inspiring for scholars of the next historical and literary epochs). What? – revealing the most important dimensions of Old-Polish literature. Why? – because in works published so far the scant use of source texts proves to be representative of the most general material remaining of Old-Polish literature in its intertwining of anthropology and dialectics of orality and literacy.

The relationship between features of source text use and integrated writing quality

Abstract Academic writing ability is an important aspect of success in higher education. Recently, standardized academic language proficiency tests (such as the TOEFL) have begun to include integrated writing tasks, which ask test-takers to read and/or listen to a passage and construct a response that reflects the information in the passage(s). Arguably, integrated tasks more closely resemble authentic academic tasks than independent tasks, and therefore increase the construct validity of assessment tools that include them (Cumming et al., 2005; Taylor & Angelis, 2008). A number of recent studies have investigated differences between the products and processes of responding to independent and integrated tasks (Guo et al., 2013; Kyle & Crossley, 2016; Plakans, 2009a; Plakans & Gebril, 2013). In this study, the relationship between automated indices of source text use and holistic quality scores is investigated, building on Plakans and Gebril (2013). The results indicate that a number of indices related to content word overlap and n-gram overlap explained a substantial portion of the variance in holistic scores. These results generally align with the findings of Plakans and Gebril (2013), and provide important implications for increasing the construct coverage of automated scoring models (such as e-rater).

Exploring L2 writers’ source-text use in an integrated writing assessment

The current trend in second language writing assessment has been toward the integration of multiple competencies in one task, specifically by incorporating reading and listening sources into integrated writing tasks. However, research has shown that novice writers may have difficulty understanding source text information, paraphrasing and summarizing source information, and incorporating that information into a coherent piece of writing. To shed further light on the relationship between source text use and integrated writing task performance, this short communication reports the findings of a larger study that explored EAP students’ (N = 111) performance on the Canadian Assessment of English Language (CAEL) integrated writing task. Their written texts were analyzed in terms of the number of source-text ideas used, linguistic modifications to source information, and content accuracy of source information. Results indicated that both the number of source ideas and content accuracy predicted participants’ CAEL writing band scores.

Source-based writing in a health sciences essay: Year 1 students' perceptions, abilities and strategies

In recent years, research interest in writing using sources has broadened from a focus on plagiarism to studies of source based writing in academic settings and the challenges it presents for novice writers. While previous research has largely involved assignment writing or experimental tasks by L2 students in pre-sessional or adjunct EAP courses, this naturalistic study explored students' source text use in the disciplines. It used a questionnaire, citation analysis and text-based interviews to examine the views, approaches and citing practices of a group of L1 and L2 students for an essay assignment in a first-year health sciences course. Citation analysis showed a reasonable degree of accuracy with regard to students' paraphrases of source meanings; however, as revealed in textual analysis and interviews, these novices were still unskilled at conveying a clear stance on sources and their presence as authors. Their main citing strategy appeared to be efficient reformulation through attribution citations. Guidance from tutors and task instructions set modest expectations and helped students to understand disciplinary conventions for source text use, and it was evident that argument and understanding of core issues was much more important than citation quality in markers' evaluations of their essays.

Source text use by undergraduate post-novice L2 writers in disciplinary assignments: Progress and ongoing challenges

Research on L2 students’ writing using sources has broadened its focus from transgressive citing practices to stages of skill development in this complicated literacy, the successive challenges students face, and how instruction might be of benefit. Studies have examined the source text use of novices; however, citations in disciplinary assignments by post-novice undergraduate writers have seldom been investigated. Six L2 writers in Year 3 of undergraduate studies in Arts and Social Sciences participated in a study that compared their citations with source texts, the citing practices of other inexperienced writers, and work by published scholars. Citation analysis showed that while nearly three-quarters of students’ citations were of acceptable quality, less effective practices such as inaccurate and narrowly focused citations, patchwriting, and copying still featured, and single source paraphrases were employed for a relatively narrow range of purposes. The supporting roles played by citations in disciplinary assignments, which included showing links between theories and specific data sets or texts, and supporting students’ arguments became evident. Interviews revealed students’ concerns and a somewhat negative attitude to source text use requirements. It is suggested that EAP writing instruction for post-novices include a focus on rhetorical and disciplinary purposes of source text use.

Form and function of citations in discussion sections of master's theses and research articles

The use of source texts in academic writing has been explored in at least two groups of EAP studies, those on the reading-writing connection in student writing and those on citation practices in disciplinary discourse. In recent years, there have been a growing number of studies on the rhetorical functions of intertextual links in different academic genres such as research articles and theses, and studies have also compared citation use by novice and more established writers. Following a brief analysis of citation forms, this article explores the functions of source text use in the discussion sections of master's theses and research articles from biology using two typologies, one created by Thompson (2001, 2005) and, the second, an expanded model described in this paper, which reflects the rhetorical progression of this part-genre. Previous genre studies have only referred to the use of literature in one move in discussions, “commenting on results.” However, the results of this study show that intertextual links are used for a variety of rhetorical functions throughout discussions in master's theses and journal articles. This article concludes with a discussion of implications from this study for the EAP classroom to facilitate the development of advanced second language writers.

Using multiple texts in an integrated writing assessment: Source text use as a predictor of score

Interest in integrated tasks is increasing in second language writing, accompanied by a concern for appropriate interpretation of performances and scores from these tasks. Integrated writing adds an element not found in traditional independent writing: the use of source text material. This study investigates how source text use appears in performances on an integrated writing task, and how it differs across score levels and task topics. Educational Testing Service (ETS) supplied 480 performances on the writing section of the Internet-based Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL iBT) to explore these questions. The integrated TOEFL task involves a comparative summary of listening and reading texts that present differing views on a topic. In this study, multiple regression analysis was used to consider three areas of source text use: (1) the importance of source text ideas that writers included in their summary, (2) the use of ideas from a reading source text and from a listening text, and (3) the borrowing of exact wording from the source texts (verbatim source use). These three areas were analyzed across nine score levels and indicated that score and source use are related. Overall, these features of source text use explained over 50% of the variance in scores on the reading–listening–writing task. The use of the listening text and the inclusion of important ideas from source texts explained the most variance, while use of the reading text and verbatim source use were less predictive. The latter two held a negative correlation with score, indicating that the lower scoring essays had more of these features. These findings support the claim that integrated writing assessment elicits academic writing processes, which is reflected by score. High-scoring writers selected important ideas from the source texts and used the listening text as the task prompt instructed. Low scoring writers depended heavily on the reading texts for content and direct copying of words and phrases. These findings support the validity of interpreting integrated task scores as a measure of academic writing but provide a nuanced look at the contribution of certain source use features.

A Lie of Omission: Plagiarism in Nella Larsen's Quicksand

A Lie of Omission:Plagiarism in Nella Larsen's Quicksand Erika Renée Williams (bio) Nella Larsen, one of the Harlem Renaissance's most critically acclaimed writers, had authored two novels, Quicksand (1928), and Passing (1929), when her short story "Sanctuary" called into question her legitimacy as an author. Purportedly, her story, which appeared in the January 1930 issue of Forum, too greatly resembled one by Sheila Kaye-Smith, which had been published in the January 1922 issue of Century. Larsen was supported by her publishers, to whom she provided the four detailed drafts of her manuscript believed to confirm her innocence. Yet as many critics have noted, the shadow of criminality haunted her and likely hastened the demise of her literary career: she published nothing after the controversy. The probability that Larsen borrowed from Sheila Kaye-Smith has been well documented, but I have discovered another instance of plagiarism by Larsen: her nearly verbatim copying from the opening passage of John Galsworthy's short story "The First and the Last," in order to formulate the opening passage of her novel Quicksand.1 In some of the most recent analyses of Larsen's copying from Kaye-Smith's story, her textual appropriation has been recast as something other than plagiarism— namely, a kind of aesthetic innovation.2 Such defenses of Larsen and her plagiarism implicitly contribute to a prevalent critical discourse that plagiarism in general no longer proves viable in the wake of postmodernism's deconstruction of conventional authorship.3 In contrast, I believe that no rhetoric of formalist innovation can mitigate the error of an author's verbatim copying from another author, especially when it involves pointed linguistic echoes. Indeed, as I will go on to detail, Larsen's appropriation of Galsworthy's text is too liberal—and too literal—to constitute a successful literary adaptation or allusion—especially when placed in the context of her capacity for genuine allusion that did not involve verbatim linguistic repetition. Moreover, there is trouble to be gleaned from the fact that Larsen's appropriation of Galsworthy appears as a secret to unearth and not a treasure to cull, as Larsen neither cited Galsworthy as a source, nor signaled her invocation of him in any palpable way. Although it was a known fact that the Harlem Renaissance writer admired the Edwardian author, who first came to the American literary scene as a playwright and is best known for The Forsyte Saga, the extent of Larsen's admiration for and emulation of Galsworthy is perhaps greater than what has previously been understood. Indeed, my desire to posit a fuller history of Larsen drives me—despite misgivings and regret about revealing a second instance in which she likely plagiarized a text—to proceed with such delicate and potentially damning information about an author whose contributions to African American literature I continue to cherish. I am compelled to disclose as well as analyze what I learned about Larsen for a number of reasons. First, I think it germane as a matter of literary history—especially given that my discovery of another instance of plagiarism by Larsen troubles the recent inclination to read Larsen as a misunderstood practitioner of inter-textual poetics. It suggests a pattern of unattributed borrowing on Larsen's part. Indeed, as scholars and critics of Larsen, we benefit from having the fullest possible picture of this complicated author and her body of work, even if that picture disturbs us. Second, as I have said, I resist the claim of some contemporary theory that postmodernism's disavowal of the sovereign text precludes all charges of plagiarism. [End Page 205] In fact, the plagiarist, by obfuscating some of the history of her own text, actually denies the diverse sources that furnish the proof of its multivalent nature. The high modernist and postmodernist techniques of pastiche and inter-textual allusion call forth the reader's recognition of them, and also rely upon a critical delineation of the aesthetic protocols by which they might be legitimately employed by an author. In contrast, the plagiarist's illicit and derivative use of source texts exploits her fellow authors by enacting violence upon their texts, whose fragments she lifts only...

An Insight into Textual Borrowing Practices of University-Level Students in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Textual borrowing, a distinctive feature of academic writing, is a very complex practice which poses problems to novice English as a Second Language/English as a Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) writers. Students in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) also encounter these problems when writing in English. The present study investigates the use of source texts in student essays in order to find out how BiH students incorporate borrowed text into their own. The first part of this paper provides a short theoretical background on the topic and offers insight into the BiH education system, while the second part of the paper presents the main research results which show a high incidence of inappropriate textual borrowing in student texts. It is argued that a stronger focus on teaching writing and more hours of explicit teaching are possible ways to overcome this problem.

Writing their way to Science: Gaining access to the discourse of Biology

Essential for any student's successful study in the discipline of Life Science is attainment of a sense of belonging in the discipline, and mastery of the academic genres that are important in the discipline. Students in the Science Foundation Programme (SFP) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, are English second-language students with poor background knowledge of science, and far less previous experience of writing than would be ideal. In teaching an SFP Biology course, we used two approaches for student acquisition of literacy practices as an indispensable part of acculturating them into the discourse of Biology. Firstly, a variety of experiences (most importantly a visit to the rocky shores) and written tasks (formal and informal) developed in students a sense of belonging in the discipline. Secondly, an explicitly scaffolded approach was used to teach students the discipline-specific experimental report genre that is central to experimental sciences. Analysis of students' reports following these approaches showed as yet incomplete acquisition of certain discourse conventions such as those related to use of source texts, lack of certainty about where to put certain information within the structure of the report, ability to focus on relevant material and inadequate use of logical connectors. However, students portrayed a growing sense of the audience they were writing for, as evidenced in features such as avoidance of personalised language. This information enabled further strategies to be developed for students to reach a level of competence as novice writers within the discipline.

Plagiarism by Non-Native Speaker Student Writers

Abstract Many studies have attributed plagiarism to the temptations of the Internet, teachers’ reluctance to enforce the rules, belonging to a culture where academic plagiarism is condoned, or non-native speakership. In this paper, it is first argued that none of these can be considered direct causes of plagiarism, and other studies are cited that support this position. It is further argued that non-native student plagiarism is caused by ignorance of the rules and/or authorial problems. Further support for this claim is provided by an empirical study involving inappropriate use of source texts by eight non-native speaker graduate students. This study confirms the findings in Pecorari (2003, 2006) where it is claimed that plagiarizing non-native speakers have personal, idiosyncratic views of plagiarism that demonstrate their ignorance of the generally accepted rules. This study also confirms the findings in Abasi et al. (2006) where it is claimed that authorial problems are a root cause of plagiarism by ESL students. Finally, it is investigated what the relationship is between ignorance of the rules of plagiarism and authorial problems.

Plagiarism by Non-Native Speaker Student Writers

Many studies have attributed plagiarism to the temptations of the Internet, teachers’ reluctance to enforce the rules, belonging to a culture where academic plagiarism is condoned, or non-native speakership. In this paper, it is first argued that none of these can be considered direct causes of plagiarism, and other studies are cited that support this position. It is further argued that non-native student plagiarism is caused by ignorance of the rules and/or authorial problems. Further support for this claim is provided by an empirical study involving inappropriate use of source texts by eight non-native speaker graduate students. This study confirms the findings in Pecorari (2003, 2006) where it is claimed that plagiarizing non-native speakers have personal, idiosyncratic views of plagiarism that demonstrate their ignorance of the generally accepted rules. This study also confirms the findings in Abasi et al. (2006) where it is claimed that authorial problems are a root cause of plagiarism by ESL students. Finally, it is investigated what the relationship is between ignorance of the rules of plagiarism and authorial problems.