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Shehanh Alghamdi

Professor Bock

EN 102

October 28, 2018

Unintentional Plagiarism in Writing

Writing research papers is one fundamental academic activity in any college. Either

Students Required in various courses to write research essays, and papers on different topics,

given by the instructor or the students choose from various fields, As a culture in the school of

writing, students or rather learners would be required to collect different sources for the research

information. Some would use journal articles other would derive their information from websites

and other sources. As they begin compiling and writing their papers, every idea or information

used from the collected sources is to be cited appropriately and correctly. By definition,

unintentional plagiarism is plagiarism that results from failure to cite sources or rather disregard

of appropriate scholarly writing process. Commonly, unintentional plagiarism emanates from

failure to cite information that is not common knowledge as well as failure to paraphrase a

source despite proper citing. I have fallen prey to unintentional plagiarism because of the three

forms of paraphrase namely: the substitution technique, intra-sentential change technique, and

inter-sentential change technique. Notably, various studies show that there is a challenge that

most students face in their writing process – the problem of unintentional plagiarism. My writing

process is reflected in key factors discussed by the following articles: “Writing from sources,

writing from sentences” by Howard, Serviss, and Rodrigue, “Mother’s Tongue” ​ ​By Amy Tan,

“Shitty First Drafts”​ ​by Anne Lamott, and “Learning to Praise” ​ ​by Donald Daiker. Those key

factors are: Forms of paraphrasing as source of unintentional plagiarism, instructors requirements

and different English dialects contribute to unintentional plagiarism, and writing in portions or

rather portions reduces unintentional plagiarism also Praising students cultivates the habits of

reading to understand and summarize sources properly.

One factor that leads me and many other students to unintentional plagiarism is the

requirements from the instructors. Most of the time, professors require us to cite their sources

properly. Furthermore, they go ahead to award points to the students who have more sources for

their written work. For example, a professor in my class instructed us to cite fifteen sources for a

two-page research paper. The intention of the professor may have been to help us understand the

content in the sources and subsequently summarize in two pages. However, I feel this was too

cumbersome. Citing fifteen sources in the two-page essay is a way of encouraging plagiarism

among students who like me, have difficulties with the language. As a result, I would fill the

essay with both brief quotes and block quotes in the paper, with appropriate citations earn the

points as indicated in the grading rubric. This has been a common practice in many courses, and

colleges are producing graduates who are specialized in plagiarism. According to Howard,

Serviss, and (Rodrigue ), many professors are focusing on citation of sources rather than

students’ understanding of the cited sources. Many students drag and drop source statements,

either paraphrased or quoted into their written assignments, and pretend to have cited properly.

Nevertheless, an understanding of cited sources is required from students so that they can

summarize the main points of the source into their written work rather than stealing and

publishing other people’s work whether directly or indirectly. Howard, Serviss, and Rodrigue

carried out a study and found that out of eighteen students, none summarized the sources given.

Many students fall prey of copying and patchwriting. This is a result of teaching students to cite

their work appropriately regardless of their understanding of the source. I think instructors and

other academic facilitators should start encouraging students to read and understand the source

before citing. They should inculcate the practice of summarizing sources, which is an essential

practice in research writing.

Furthermore, I also engage in unintentional plagiarism because of my language

proficiency. I was and raised in an Arabic speaking family. As a result, my speaking and

understanding of the English Language are wanting. When given sources to read and summarize

in my writing, I tend to either copy or patchwriting. Notably, I do not patchwrite intentionally,

but because I have deficiencies in the language. (Tan) established that family background plays

important roles in a child’s language development. The kind of English tongue used in a family

setting could be transferred to class or rather an academic setting. Since instructions would

require students to write in acceptable English language, students would avoid their broken

tongues by plagiarizing the sources by either copying, paraphrasing or patchwriting. In other

words, my family background has had a lot of impact on my writing. When it comes to Arabic

writing, I am very fluent, and my language flows because I understand it very well.

Moreover, I have also been experiencing problems with first drafts. In fact, in all my

writing, I always score very poorly in the first draft. I make many writing mistakes including

grammar and spelling mistakes thereby losing a lot of points. However, upon revision,since my

professor usually helps in pointing out the mistakes, I score moderately well in the subsequent

drafts. (Lamott) in her essay “Shitty First Drafts” gives an account of her writing process. She

writes three drafts before having a final revised copy. This can be a great tool for avoiding

unintentional plagiarism in research writing. Educators and other academic facilitators should be

encouraging students to write papers in small parts to ensure they understand what they do. For

instance, recently, there are some courses, which break the writing process into small portions to

enable the student todo deep and comprehensive research before writing a final paper. Precisely,

the course required students to first, write an annotated bibliography with each source

summarized properly. Secondly, the students were to write first drafts to check for any forms of

plagiarism, whether intentional or unintentional. The professor would then check the drafts

specifically for any forms of plagiarism and give feedback to students. The feedback would help

students revise and correct any plagiarized parts of the written paper. The importance of this

process is that it teaches students to write formal and credible papers, rather than having patch

written and paraphrased papers.

Lastly, (Daiker ) discusses the importance of praising students in improving their writing

skills and abilities. One mistake that current educators make is to identify errors and mistakes

that students make in their written papers. They hardly find commendable parts of the essay. It

is, therefore, important to develop a culture of giving praiseworthy comments in addition to

pointing out plagiarized part. However, I have a professor who has been helping me write

efficiently. After marking my written paper, the professor points out the strengths and the

improvements I have made as well showing me the errors to correct. This has borne much fruit

because my writing skill is developing gradually. As such, teachers should develop the practice

of praising their students and pointing out major improvements to show the student that he or she

is making a difference in the learning process.

In conclusion, unintentional plagiarism has been one of the greatest challenges in my

academic writing journey. This results from the professor's requirements of writing where they

want us to cite the papers properly regardless of our understanding of the sources. Moreover, my

English language proficiency has been affected by Arabis thus leading me to either copy or patch

write. However, continues praise and encouragement from the professor has been of great

importance to my academic writing, and it has helped me reduce unintentional plagiarism.

Work Cited

● Daiker, D A.. "Learning to Praise." Concepts in Composition: Theory and Practice in the

Teaching of Writing (2011):References

● Howard, R M., T Serviss and T K. Rodrigue. "Writing from sources, writing from

sentences." Writing and Pedagogy 2.(2010): 177-192.

● Lamott, A. "Shitty First Drafts." Writing about writing: A college reader (2014):

527-531.

● Tan, A. "Mother's Tongue." Enriching ESOL Pedagogy: Readings and Activities for

Engagement (2002): 431-435.