Plagiarism and Academic Writing of Learners of English

 Incidents and anecdotal evidence accrue of learners’ resorting to plagiarism in their essays and research papers. Howard (1995), in order presumably to cope with the ubquitiousness of plagiarism in academic writing programs in U.S. universities, makes a case for taking a positive perspective on such techniques as “patchwriting” by novice writers. There seem to be three possible reasons that plagiarism is common among students writing in English as a second language. First is the desire to cut corners, as with NS plagiarism. Second, there are differences in cultural practices, in attitudes, and in training. Third, the learners have a lack of skills and/or language proficiency.

 

Plagiarism, that is, the use without attribution of the language and/or ideas of a source text, is, needless to say, not an issue exclusive to NNS learners of English in academic papers. Writers of academic papers in general are expected to demonstrate the ability to integrate information from multiple sources and use the conventions of such a genre to acknowledge the authors of the source texts. The theme of cross-cultural differences, specifically ideological positions with regard to authorship, responsibility for evidence, and attribution of agency is a major one, perhaps the most dominant, in the literature.

A cultural interpretation of the act of plagiarism may be the most plausible as the over-riding heuristic frame, subsuming the educational system under it as just one, perhaps the most important, of the sites for the playing out of a culture’s values and beliefs. The way a writer or a speaker handles the use of multiple sources of information to create text or discourse involves culturally-constrained notions of authority, entitlement, ownership, responsibility for information and evidence.