Paraphrasing Strategies Of Source Use In Academic Writing

Citation is an indispensable means of academic writing, while paraphrase is an important way of citation. Because of adopting inappropriate means of citation, the academic paper of Chinese students may be regarded as plagiarism more or less. However, appropriate paraphrasing is an effective way to avoid both inappropriate citation and plagiarism. The research on paraphrase can provide a reference for the teaching of academic writing, so as to promote students’academic writing, as well as the development of research on paraphrase in depth and breadth.This study investigates paraphrasing beliefs, paraphrasing strategies and paraphrasing ability of 60 English major postgraduates from a key normal university in Wuhan by adopting a questionnaire, a test and an interview. And then quantitative and qualitative data are analyzed so as to explore characteristics of paraphrasing strategies and paraphrasing beliefs among those 60 postgraduates, and then explore relationships among paraphrasing strategies, paraphrasing beliefs and paraphrasing ability, as well as differences of paraphrasing strategies and paraphrasing beliefs among different paraphrasing ability groups.Through factor analysis, six factors are extracted from paraphrasing strategies, namely word change, syntax change, combination, substantial revision, insertion and deletion.5 factors are extracted from paraphrasing beliefs, namely patchwriting, unnecessary to paraphrase, substantial revision, beliefs of paraphrasing ability, and beliefs of paraphrasing results. Descriptive statistics demonstrate that English major postgraduates prefer to use combination, substantial strategies rather than deletion strategy. As regards paraphrasing beliefs, English major postgraduates accept not so much "unnecessary to paraphrase" belief as substantial revision belief, as well as word change and syntax change beliefs which belong to patchwriting.Through Kruskal Wallis and Spearman correlation test, relationships among paraphrasing strategies, paraphrasing beliefs and paraphrasing ability are proved. It is found that students who approve patchwriting belief most frequently use syntax change, deletion and insertion strategies. Students who think that it is unnecessary to paraphrase most frequently adopt deletion strategy, while use substantial revision strategy less. Students who support substantial revision belief use word change strategy least. Students who most frequently use combination strategy are of the lowest paraphrasing ability, while students who most frequently adopt substantial revision strategy are of the highest ability. Besides, students who are confident in their paraphrasing ability perform best.The differences and distribution characteristics of paraphrasing beliefs and paraphrasing strategies among different paraphrasing ability groups are analyzed by Mann-Whitney test. It is proved that differences of paraphrasing beliefs and paraphrasing strategies exist among different groups. As regards paraphrasing strategies, syntax change is most frequently used by the middle group, and least frequently used by both the high group and the low group. Word change is most frequently used by the low group, and least frequently used by the high group. Insertion is most frequently used by the low group, and least frequently used by the high group. Substantial revision is most frequently used by the high group, and least frequently used by the low group. Combination is most frequently used by the low group, and least frequently used by the high group. With respect to paraphrasing beliefs, patchwriting is most acceptable by the low group, and most unacceptable by the high group. "Unnecessary to paraphrase" belief is most acceptable by the low group, and most unacceptable by the high group.By qualitative analysis, the study finds that not all students have a clear perception about paraphrase. Even though some students think that they understand paraphrase clearly, actually, their understanding is inappropriate. Besides, students don’t have a consistent agreement between their paraphrasing beliefs and paraphrasing strategies. What’s more, all students argue that it is necessary for them to have an academic writing training, and some students think that an academic writing course should be opened as soon as possible after students beginning postgraduate study.According to those findings of the study, suggestions for teaching and learning of paraphrase in academic writing are given. Besides, limitations of data collection and sample are pointed.