Plagiarism and Patchwriting Detection in EFL Students' Graduation Research Writing

Abstract

This study aims at detecting plagiarism and patchwritting in Iraqi EFL students' graduation research papers. To accomplish this aim, five graduation research papers were analyzed. Findings indicate that Iraqi EFL students when writing from sources commit extensive copying from the source (plagiarsism) or stitching sentences together to form a paragraph (patchwriting). So instead of  writing about the source they find themselves coping from it. The researchers find that this misuse of sources is due to many reasons that were revealed in a questionnaire conducted throughout the study on 20 Iraqi fourth stage University students, exploring why they commit direct coping from their sources. Figures indicate evidently that (60%) of the students expressed their  lack of knowledge in the possible techniques that could be used when writing from sources like summarizing and paraphrasing. This lack of knowledge plays an essential role in the difficulty students face in their research writing process. To avoid plagiarism and patchwriting, further research is most definitely urgent so that the Iraqi students might be more aware of their misuses of sources and of the misconducting techniques they employ in writing their graduation research papers.

Keywords: Plagiarism, Patchwriting, Writing from sources, Paraphrasing, Summarizing.