Process citing: Avoiding plagiarism in student writing

Using sources: a cultural issue Plagiarism is felt to be one of the worst violations of academic values, and some lecturers at English-speaking universities believe that international students are especially likely to plagiarise. While evidence to support this belief is scarce, it is clear that international students often plagiarise in different ways, and for different reasons, than home students. The differences in the approach to using sources are illustrated by an American's account of teaching in two highly regarded Japanese universities: (The students) were perceptive readers, and fair at textual analysis, and yet when it came time to doing research and scrupulously using quotes and attributing them, they were remarkably naive. They would think nothing of reading Wayne Booth, then using his critical approach on a short story without so much as mentioning Booth's name or putting anything in quotes. When I asked why they had not quoted or cited Booth, they said that if what Booth had written was obviously true, then why should it be necessary to mention or quote him?(Day, in press). This is a different sort of plagiarism than copying an essay from an encyclopedia. Some explanation other than laziness or dishonesty must be found for it; two that are often offered are (perceived) lack of proficiency in English and cultural differences in attitudes toward and practices in education. These issues are by no means unique to Japanese students, but are particularly important because of the dimensions of the cultural gap between Japan and the English-speaking world. This paper will identify some of the sources of these difficulties, and suggest classroom practices to address them.