Citation and plagiarism: Undergraduates writing from sources

Abstract

Citation of sources is a hallmark of academic writing. However, in novice writers’ texts citation often goes hand in hand with plagiarism. Although student plagiarism has been a problem raising wide concern, not much research, in particular in the context of Hong Kong, has been conducted to investigate how students’ understanding of proper citation may connect to their writing practices and how teachers respond to students’ citational practices when Turnitin.com is involved in the assessment stage. Using a case study approach, the present study triangulates multiple sources of data to illuminate several students’ citational practices and the invisibility of the problematic aspects to their lecturers. We end the paper with a few pedagogical recommendations, addressing the role of subject professors and peer learning, noting the importance of using Turnitin in ways that provide teaching-learning opportunities, and advocating pedagogy that goes beyond the teaching of referencing skills.