Citation practices : insights from interviews with six undergraduate students at the University of Malta

Abstract

The present study is an attempt to provide insights into the underlying factors governing citation practices in three higher- and three lower-graded undergraduate dissertations in Education at the University of Malta. On the basis of the analysis of interview data, the study found evidence to suggest a distinction across the parameters of citation density, source type, forms of integrating report and textual voice. While all students interviewed acknowledged the importance of an adequate reference list, those producing higher-graded dissertations were more likely to make use of citations from journal articles, integrate source material into their texts using paraphrases and superimpose their textual voice. There is some evidence to suggest that two factors influencing preference across the above parameters are language competence and previous training in academic writing. The paper supports previous work documenting a relationship between citation use and dissertation grade and advocates more work on citation practices with particular reference to associated linguistic skills in the case of non-native speakers.