Plagiarism Tutorials in Teaching Academic Writing for L2 Vietnamese Undergraduates

Abstract

Plagiarism is considered a controversial issue in academic writing, especially at university level in Vietnam. Considering the seriousness of this academic dishonesty, the present study aims to explore plagiarism knowledge among undergraduate Vietnamese students to find out which important plagiarism contents are needed for trainings. Then the plagiarism tutorials will be carried out in writing classes to increase students’ awareness. A total of 44 sophomore students were asked to write an essay at home with the purpose of examining their plagiarism knowledge. All of the students’ writing papers were checked for plagiarism by using Turnitin software. Ten students were randomly invited for the interviews (before and after plagiarism tutorials). It was reported that thirty five out of forty-four students did plagiarize at high percentage. Their plagiarism knowledge was limited and vague. In particular, they thought that plagiarism was just an act of copying from others in a general way and did not pay much attention to this issue when writing. They also did not know how to avoid plagiarism by using citation and quotation. According to these findings, the contents of plagiarism tutorials were determined and designed based on the standard of the American Psychological Association (APA style). The contents of crediting sources include plagiarism introduction, types of plagiarism, crediting sources, and citing references. Students reported high awareness after plagiarism trainings as the answers to the survey were approximately 80% correct. Thus, plagiarism tutorials should be a part of writing course syllabi, especially for courses that require students to write or do research projects, and this activity should be encouraged to do regularly. In addition, plagiarism tutorials like seminars should be organized for all students from various departments to minimize plagiarism.