Ghanaian Graduate Students’ Knowledge of Referencing in Academic Writing and Implications for Plagiarism (original) (raw)

Referencing is a fundamental and critical aspect of scholarship. It is a way in which members of the scholarly community acknowledge the contributions of others to knowledge creation and dissemination, and signal the extent of their use of such prior knowledge in relation to their own original input. Graduate students, as burgeoning members of the academe, need to understand the value of such textual practices and commit to them. While studies in this area have tended to focus on international students in Western universities, less attention has been paid to students in universities in West Africa. This study therefore seeks to investigate Ghanaian graduate students' background preparation in and knowledge of referencing styles in academic writing. Using a questionnaire-based approach, the paper explores the views of 125 graduate students of the University of Ghana. Even though most of the students declared they had had substantial levels of training in referencing styles, their responses to types of assigned writing tasks and use of source materials revealed gaps in their practical knowledge of referencing formats. The study considers the implications of the findings for plagiarism, and proposes strategies for strengthening students' preparation in citation protocols.