Written Communication Apr 2004

Textual Borrowing in Second-Language Writing

Ling Shi University of British Columbia

Abstract

This study examines how first language and the type of writing task affect undergraduates’ word usage from source readings in their English writing. Of 87 participating university undergraduates, 39 were native English speakers from a 1st-year writing course in a North American university, whereas 48 were 3rd-year Chinese students learning English as a second language in a university in China. Using two preselected source texts, half of the students in each group completed a summary task; the other half completed an opinion task. Students’ drafts and the source texts were compared to identify exact or near verbatim retention of strings of words from sources with or without acknowledgement. A two-way ANOVA indicated that both task and first language had an effect on the amount of words borrowed. The study found that students who did the summary task borrowed more words than those who wrote the opinion essays, and Chinese students used source texts mostly without citing references for either task.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
2004-04-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088303262846
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
writing pedagogy multilingual writers affect and writing
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (16)

  1. Feng et al. (2026)
    Conceptual, rhetorical and linguistic transformations: Assessing L2 literature …
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  2. Jwa (2026)
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  3. Liao et al. (2025)
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  4. Lee et al. (2025)
    Predicting inappropriate source use from scores of language use, source compreh…
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  5. Harsch et al. (2024)
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  1. Xie (2023)
    Assessing source use: Summary vs. reading-to-write argumentative essay
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  2. Su et al. (2022)
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  3. Chan et al. (2022)
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  4. Liu et al. (2022)
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  5. Uludag et al. (2022)
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  6. Dong et al. (2021)
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  7. Ye et al. (2019)
    Source use in the story continuation writing task
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  8. Wang et al. (2017)
    Evaluating rater accuracy and perception for integrated writing assessments usi…
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  9. Hyland (2009)
    Drawing a line in the sand: Identifying the borderzone between self and other i…
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    The shifting sands in the effects of source text summarizability on summary writing
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