Anchoring the First-Year Research Paper: a pilot study of FYW student citation practices

Autores

  • Mary Lourdes Silva Ithaca College, New York, USA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5433/2237-4876.2021v24n1p43

Palavras-chave:

First-Year Writing, Research Writing, Source-Based Writing, Information Literacy, Citations, Escritura del primer año universitario, Investigaciones sobre Escritura, Escritura basada en fuentes, Alfabetización informacional, Referencias bibliográficas

Resumo

Writing Studies Scholars have raised concerns about framing student struggles to integrate secondary sources as an ethical problem of plagiarism. They propose, instead, framing student citation practices as transitional markers of development in which students use patchwriting to learn the discursive norms and values of academia. Patchwriting as a literacy tool for transfer raised questions for me whether students develop other scaffolds to aid in learning transfer. In this pilot study, I investigate student use of anchor sources, the “perfect source” that frames a student’s central argument, rhetorical structure, and/or purpose. Based on a random sample of a nationwide corpus of First-Year Writing research papers, findings show that 21 of 30 research papers (70%) revealed evidence of an anchor source. Six of the 9 papers without anchor sources show evidence of significant rhetorical problems. Results suggest evidence of transfer, as well as pedagogical implications for supporting this transitional stage in student development.

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Biografia do Autor

Mary Lourdes Silva, Ithaca College, New York, USA

Associate Professor of Writing

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Publicado

2021-10-08

Como Citar

SILVA, Mary Lourdes. Anchoring the First-Year Research Paper: a pilot study of FYW student citation practices. Signum: Estudos da Linguagem, [S. l.], v. 24, n. 1, p. 43–61, 2021. DOI: 10.5433/2237-4876.2021v24n1p43. Disponível em: https://ojs.uel.br/revistas/uel/index.php/signum/article/view/41848. Acesso em: 25 dez. 2024.