I recently obtained Dialogue with Bakhtin on Second and Foreign Language Learning, edited by Hall, Vitanova, and Marchenkova. One of the chapters*, written by Karen Braxley, has some interesting things to say about appropriation of genres, and its relationship to plagiarism. The students whose experiences and views form the main subject of the study generally felt that the literature review was the most difficult part of a research paper to write, and one stated that she felt the expectations of the genre caused her to feel as if she were “stealing” others' ideas:
“Put all the quotes together but not quote, just put in my own words. I feel like I'm creating something I'm not supposed to. I feel like I'm stealing. You know, people say, you have to use your own words, but I have to use someone else's academic writing pattern anyway, so it's not really my own words—I'm just copying people anyway.” (p.26)
*Mastering Academic English: International Graduate Students' Use of Dialogue and Speech Genres to Meet the Writing Demands of Graduate School, pp. 11-32 
Posted by rickdude on July 30, 2008
Tags Academic
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