Abstract:

This paper investigates a specific angle of the source-used practice in academic writing: the effect of anxiety caused by the different layers of context in influencing the use of citations when writing a research report genre. This paper is an outcome of a larger research that explored the impact of context of writing in the use of sources. The study is situated in one college of the University of Technology and Applied Sciences (UTAS) in Oman. It aimed to examine the rhetorical functions of citations used by final-year Accounting and International Business students, as well as the role of context in the use of sources. Data were collected from 11 undergraduates in the two disciplines and their 6 college professors. Moreover, 22 research reports were analysed to identify the rhetorical functions of all the citations used in all sections of students’ research reports. Petrić’s typology of 9 functions of citations was used to analyse the data (2007). For this paper, relevant documents were examined and interviews with the students and their professors were conducted. Analysis of these data mirrored that the college, academic department, task, teacher, and prior student cohorts all play a role in influencing students’ source-use knowledge and practices. Furthermore, all these layers have participated in making students anxious about their ability to use citations for more complex rhetorical functions. The analysis indicated that the legal presentation of plagiarism policy, teaching citations to avoid plagiarism, and the disregard of the “patchwriting” stage as a developmental stage that all L2 students go through when they start their academic study are the causes of this anxiety. Pedagogical implications are suggested to inform EAP instruction regarding the teaching of source use to be a less anxious task. Recommendations to reconsider the language presentation of the plagiarism policy and to systematically support learners to pass the ‘patchwriting’ stage successfully and prepare them to take a part in knowledge making are discussed. .

Keywords:

Source-use, plagiarism policy, anxiety, context of writing, academic writing.