One Learns to Quote by Quoting: Didactic Experience in Academic Literacy

Abstract

Faced with the relatively widespread problem of involuntary plagiarism, there is the need to strengthen in students some competences involved in inserting paragraphs or ideas of other authors in their academic papers. The present experience is the result of several previous formulas tested with students. For the analysis of its method, an action research design is used, so that the observation and the answers of a questionnaire lead to conclusions that confirm the success of the experiment. The present research project was carried out with 212 students who began their university education to be teachers in elementary school.. It started from a phase of awareness about intellectual property and academic honesty, followed by the exchange of perceptions about some of the conventions of this discursive genre. Some techniques of writing and layout of citations and lists were practiced, combining active and passive activities related to their typologies. Likewise, classroom practices were complemented by virtual collaborative work through the forums of the university institutional platform. The design is focused to concentrate especially on the common mistakes among pre-graduate students, especially on the parentheses for reference uses, and their proper writing as well in the final section. One of the conclusions, in order to optimize learning, is that the process must incorporate immediate and preferably open feedback, both face-to-face and virtual.