The use and misuse of reference sources: plagiarism or patchwriting?

Citation is a complex aspect of academic writing, and one that would appear to pose special problems for second-language writers. Inexperienced writers may produce what Howard (1995) has called patchwriting, a text made up of extracts from sources, stitched together. And while patchwriting lacks the component of deception understood by the word ‘plagiarism’, the distinction between the two may not be obvious in the product.

This paper presented the preliminary findings of a study of overseas students’ master’s dissertations. Student writing was compared to source texts, revealing substantial textual repetition. Students were interviewed about their writing practices, and asked to discuss the ways in which the repetition may have come about, and the students’ supervisors were asked to evaluate the students’ use of sources in the light of disciplinary standards.