Re-using words is not plagiarism: establishing the

Re-using words is not plagiarism: establishing the role of recurrent academic phrases in postgraduate writing Mary Davis, Oxford Brookes University John Morley, University of Manchester WDHE 2010 Sustainable Writing Development: Approaches and Challenges

Reusing words? • “Plagiarism: stealing someone else’s ideas or words and make them appear as if they were yours. Plagiarism is a serious offence and will always result in imposition of a penalty.” (School of Law, University of Manchester, 2009) • “Plagiarism is presenting or submitting someone else's work (words or ideas), intentionally or unintentionally, as your own. This is considered to be a form of cheating and may be subject to disciplinary action” (Oxford Brookes University, 2010)

The ownership of language • “The word in language is half someone else's. It becomes 'one's own' only when the speaker populates it with his own intention, his own accent when he appropriates the word, adapting it to his own semantic and expressive intention. “ (Bakhtin, 1981:294)

Reusing words? • Use your own words wherever possible • …….. “Don't fall into the trap of thinking another author can 'say it better' than you: your tutors are interested in your ideas and opinions, and are not expecting a perfectly polished writing style. Your writing is good enough. There is no 'wrong' answer!”

University of Sussex (retrieved 2010)

The nature of language • “a very large portion of a person’s ability to get along in a language consists of the mastery of formulaic utterances” (Fillmore, 1979: 92 in Wray, 2002: 9)

• non-standard phraseology in non-native speaker writing, reflecting a general lack of awareness of preferred phraseological structures (Howarth, 1998)

Borrowing academic phrases as a learning strategy • “borrowing the words and phrases of others can be a useful language learning strategy. Certainly, you would not be plagiarizing if you borrowed items that are commonly or frequently used in academic English” (Swales and Feak, 2004: 172).

Recurrent academic phrases in Turnitin matches

Further recurrent phrases in student work • It would not be an exaggeration to state that It goes without saying that many studies have already been done on However, there appears to be no previous work that surveys This research aims to examine whether On the other hand, it was also revealed that

Student views on the difference between reusable phrases and those that need to be referenced A: These phrases don’t have someone’s ideas, they are just ways of expressing B: These phrases don’t contain a point of view C: They are not special phrases that belong to an author D: They are general, not specific E: These phrases are for common knowledge

Student views on whether using these phrases could become plagiarism A: If the writer didn’t change any content and stole an idea B: You need to acknowledge a view, not a form of expression, these phrases are free C: Common phrases are not plagiarism unless they are connected to special things D: No case unless there is specific information in the phrase E: No, common phrases are never plagiarism

Expert views on whether using these phrases could become plagiarism • The whole point about plagiarism is the lifting of ideas, not language, it’s intellectual property theft.. • They don’t really overlap with plagiarism, plagiarism can be avoided by quoting, paraphrasing, citing, synthesising with judicious use of sources. (John Slaght, University of Reading)

Expert views on whether these phrases could become plagiarism • I think we should be getting students to see the difference, to distinguish between writing tools and content • and if you have a clear definition…it should make the distinction between these useful phrases and plagiarism. (Melinda Whong, University of Leeds)

Conclusion • Students and language experts agree that using these phrases can be distinguished from plagiarism • Using recurrent phrases can be an empowering tool to write in a language and so should be taught • Using these phrases is part of a writer’s engagement with academic discourse and should be seen as good practice

Bibliography • • • • •

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Bakhtin, M. M. (1981). The dialogic imagination. Austin: The University of Texas Press McGowan, U. (2005) Does educational integrity mean teaching students NOT to 'use their own words'? Asia Pacific Forum on Educational Integrity 1(1): 1-11. Nattinger, J. and DeCarrico, J. (1992). Lexical phrases and language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press Swales, J. and Feak, C. (2004). Academic writing for graduate students. 2nd ed. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press University of Manchester, School of Law (2009) Writing An Essay Retrieved 18 may 2010 from http://www.law.manchester.ac.uk/manlaw/exams/documents/essaywritingguideoct2009.pdf University of Sussex website (2010) Retrieved 18 may 2010 from http://www.sussex.ac.uk/academicoffice/1-4-1-2-4.html Wray, A. (2002). Formulaic language and the lexicon. Cambridge: CUP

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