Source-use expectations in assignments: The perceptions and practices of Vietnamese Master's students

Abstract

This is a qualitative investigation into international Master's students' approach to using sources in read-to-write assignments. It investigates three stages of students' engagement with sources: understanding source-use expectations, identifying appropriate sources, and incorporating content from source texts into assignment writing. Data were compiled from text-based interviews with seven Vietnamese students, an assignment, and course-related documentation. The results provide insight into how students' perceive and respond to source-use expectations. We report on the type of information students attend to, the meanings they attach to this information, and manner in which they use source texts to support their academic literacy skills and develop their authorial voice. We further describe how electronic tools are used to identify, evaluate and interact with sources at the source-searching, reading and source integration stages, and note that students' perception of the use of text-matching software at this institution impacts the manner of their engagement with source content in their writing. We acknowledge that these students' successful performance in text-based writing assignments, despite marginal prior experience with this genre at undergraduate level, may have been facilitated by their overall above-average academic ability, their mature-student status, and prior disciplinary-relevant writing experience in the workplace.