“Is this in your own words?” Learning the Expectations of a Discourse Community

1. “Is this in your own words?” Learning the Expectations of a Discourse Community Presentation at the 2011 TESOL National Convention Breana A. Bayraktar Virginia International University

2. Abstract Being tasked to write “in your own words” is challenging for any student, and even more so for students who enter the Western academic tradition for the first time as international university students. “In your own words” is a construct bound heavily to ideas around authorship and authority, and situated within an individual’s culture and their status in a discourse community. The project explored implementing a workshop-based introduction to academic writing course for international students, where the participants met bi-weekly in small groups with the instructor to talk in-depth about their writing, their development as writers, and their growing understandings of the expectations of academic writing. Presentation at the 2011 TESOL National Convention

3. Population & Setting Participants are students in an introduction to academic writing course for international students. The instructor had taught the course twice before, in a traditional lecture-style, with one 3-hour class meeting each week for 15 weeks. The syllabi focuses on expanding students’ knowledge of academic writing, calling for them to write several short papers and one long research paper. This semester, a new model was implemented where every other class meeting would be a “writing workshop” with time for small group meetings and individual conferences with the instructor. These small-group meetings were times when the student brought copies of their in-progress work to be read by peers and the instructor in a casual, seminar-style format. Presentation at the 2011 TESOL National Convention

4. The Puzzlement: An Issue Of Culture? • U.S. students overall have a better grasp of the fundamental reasons behind why we (in western institutions) construct arguments and use source materials they way we do (Amesberry, 2010). • Contrasting cultural views include • View of wisdom as emanating from the self or an outside authority. • Ownership of ideas: whether an idea can belong to one person, or is owned collectively. Presentation at the 2011 TESOL National Convention

5. An Issue Of Language? • Students who are learning English must learn how to use English as the medium of instruction, learn the specific language of their discipline, and learn the content of their discipline. • Many students have a lack of formal writing instruction in L1 and English. Presentation at the 2011 TESOL National Convention

6. An Issue Of Conventions? • Conflicting expectations expressed by instructors • We urge students to write in their own words, but do not expect an entire paper constructed solely of their own opinion. • We anticipate that every student will follow more or less the same conventions of form, style, and language. • Confusion over originality vs. convention, personal voice vs. the weight of experts, compounds difficulties international students face. • Instructors, particularly those who are not teachers of English or of writing, are often too vague with their expectations. • Teaching writing is often better-served by writing studios, where students and instructors can feel free to explore writing outside of the constraints of a specific course (Grego & Thompson, 2008). Presentation at the 2011 TESOL National Convention

7. Turnitin.com Here is an example of a plagiarized paper’s Turnitin.com Originality Report. Presentation at the 2011 TESOL National Convention

8. Turnitin.com Here is an example of the same paper, after substantial revision by the student of both the structure and the citation procedures. Presentation at the 2011 TESOL National Convention

9. Implications & lessons learned Instructors should... Institutions should... • Several studies (Craig, Federici & Buehler, 2010; Davis & Carroll, 2009; McCarthy & Rogerson, 2009) have examined the use of this program with international students a a method to provided additional formative feedback on students’ papers. • While all university students need careful assistance in learning how to correctly integrate source materials, international students need additional help in understanding why the use of source materials is so important to constructing an argument, a key component of western academic writing. Institutional practices, such as having students certify that they have not committed “academic fraud” on each written assignment, having common language across course syllabi regarding plagiarism, and similar language in student handbooks and university catalogs, that do not provide any real assistance to students towards negotiating just what plagiarism is, prevents more honest, open discussions of student work and what it means to write in your own words. Presentation at the 2011 TESOL National Convention

10. The writing workshop process Presentation at the 2011 TESOL National Convention

11. conclusions Helping students to negotiate the academic expectations of the university is vital to their success as students. This negotiation very deliberately implies a mutual give-and-take, an adjustment of expectations, on the part of the students as well as the instructors and the institution. Without this mutual engagement, many more students will liberally misapply the conventions, fail to appropriately integrate sources, and, in the end, come no closer to understanding how to write in their own words. Presentation at the 2011 TESOL National Convention

12. Selected bibliography Abasi, A., & Graves, B. (2008). Academic literacy and plagiarism: conversations with international graduate students and disciplinary professors. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 7(4), 221-233. Amsberry, D. (2010). Deconstructing plagiarism: international students and textual borrowing practices. Reference Librarian, 51(1), 31-44. Chatterjee, M. (2007). Learning to Avoid Plagiarism. International Journal of Learning, 13(10), 87-94. Chandrasoma, R., Thompson, C., & Pennycook, A. (2004). Beyond plagiarism: t ransgressive and nontransgressiveintertextuality. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 33, 171–193. Craig, P., Federici, E., & Buehler, M. (2010). Instructing students in academic integrity. Journal of College Science Teaching, 40(2), 50-55. Davis, M., & Carroll, J. (2009). Formative feedback within plagiarism education: Is there a role for text-matching software?. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 5(2), 58-70. Fawley, N. (2007). Plagiarism pitfalls: a ddressing cultural differences in the misuse of sources. International Journal of Learning, 14(7), 71-74 Fox, H. (1994). Listening to the world: cultural issues in academic writing. Urbana, Ill.: National Council of Teachers of English. Grego, R. & Thmposon, N. (2008). Teaching/writing in thirdspaces: the studio approach. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. Maxwell, A., Curtis, G., & Vardanega, L. (2006). Plagiarism among local and asian students in australia. Guidance & Counseling, 21(4), 210-215. R Maxwell, A., Curtis, G., & Vardanega, L. (2008). Does culture influence understanding and perceived seriousness of plagiarism?. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 4(2), 25-40. McCarthy, G., & Rogerson, A. (2009). Links are not enough: Using originality reports to improve academic standards, compliance and learning outcomes among postgraduate students. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 5(2), 47-57. Schmidt, D. (2005). Writing in the international classroom. In J. Carroll & J. Ryan (Ed.), Teaching international students: improving learning for all (pp. 63-74). New York: Rutledge. Presentation at the 2011 TESOL National Convention

13. Breana Bayraktarbreana.bayraktar@gmail.combreanabayraktar.wordpress.com Presentation at the 2011 TESOL National Convention