References, Paraphrases and Quotations: Essentials for Writing a Non-plagiarized Text
Abstract
This article examines how four students in high school or college choose to integrate sources in their assignments using quotation and paraphrases. Implementing an innovative methodology, a digital screen capture software was used to record all the participants’ actions as they wrote a 500-word argumentative essay. A video of each participant’s actions was produced. These actions translated as quantitative results and showed the frequency of various actions grouped within five categories of strategies linked to various skills (informational skills, writing skills, referencing skills, basic computer skills and task compliance skills) and a sixth category linked to plagiarism actions. The four texts were also analysed for their quality and their level of plagiarism. Results show that the college students performed better on overall text quality, but their texts contained more plagiarism. When looking at the strategies used, all students spent more time on their informational and writing strategies than on their referencing strategies. When using sources, in general, participants had more difficulties with paraphrasing than with quoting, often not referencing their paraphrases, which resulted in plagiarism. Patterns emerged for the data showing four types of actions when integrating sources in assignments: the casual integrator, the aspiring integrator, the fearless integrator and the ethical integrator. For each profile, recommendations on how to better develop students’ paraphrasing, quoting, and referencing skills are provided.
- Journal
- Journal of Academic Writing
- Published
- 2025-02-25
- DOI
- 10.18552/joaw.v15is1.1071
- CompPile
- Search in CompPile ↗
- Open Access
- OA PDF Diamond
- Topics
- Export
- BibTeX RIS
Citation Context
Cited by in this index (0)
No articles in this index cite this work.
Cites in this index (0)
No references match articles in this index.
Related Articles
-
Computers and Composition Jun 2026“Article laundry” or “tutor in pocket?”: Multilingual writers’ generative AI-assisted writing in professional settings ↗Qianqian Zhang-Wu
-
Written Communication Mar 2026Matthew Overstreet; Silvia Vaccino-Salvadore; Diana Akhmedjanova
-
Business and Professional Communication Quarterly Dec 2025Huu Phuoc Tran
-
Writing and Pedagogy Dec 2025Trusting Each Other, Trusting Machines: Undergraduate Students’ Perceptions of Copresence Afforded by Writing Technologies, Networked Platforms, and Generative AI in Their Academic Writing Practices ↗Tracey Bowen; Kate Maddalena; Carl Whithaus
-
Communication Design Quarterly Sep 2025Jacob D. Richter