Student beliefs and attitudes about authorial identity in academic writing
AffiliationUniversity of Derby
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AbstractAuthorial identity is the sense a writer has of themselves as an author and the textual identity they construct in their writing. This article describes two studies exploring psychology students’ authorial identity in academic writing. A qualitative focus group study with 19 students showed that authorial identity was largely unfamiliar to students, and highlighted the obstacles perceived by students to constructing authorial identities in university assignments. A questionnaire survey of 318 students explored the factor structure of an 18-item Student Authorship Questionnaire. Three factors described aspects of student authorial identity (‘confidence in writing’, ‘understanding authorship’ and ‘knowledge to avoid plagiarism’), and three factors described approaches to writing (‘top-down’, ‘bottom-up’ and ‘pragmatic’). Confidence in writing and knowledge to avoid plagiarism were significantly higher among year 2 than year 1 students. Both studies could inform interventions to reduce unintentional plagiarism by improving students’ authorial identity.
CitationStudent beliefs and attitudes about authorial identity in academic writing 2009, 34 (2):153 Studies in Higher Education
JournalStudies in Higher Education
DescriptionStudies of university students' beliefs and attitudes about academic writing and authorship