Anchoring the First-Year Research Paper: A Pilot Study of FYW Student Citation Practices

Writing Studies scholars have raised concerns about framing student struggles to integrate secondary sources as an ethical problem of plagiarism. They propose, instead, framing student citation practices as transitional markers of development in which students use patchwriting to learn the discursive norms and values of academia. Patchwriting as a literacy tool for transfer of knowledge raised questions for me about whether students develop other scaffolds to aid in learning transfer. In this pilot study, I investigate student use of anchor sources, the “perfect source” that frames a student’s central argument, rhetorical structure, and/or purpose. Based on a random sample of a nationwide corpus of First-Year Writing research papers from 16 US institutions, findings show that 21 of 30 research papers (70%) revealed evidence of an anchor source. Six of the 9 papers without anchor sources show evidence of significant rhetorical problems. Results suggest evidence of knowledge transfer, as well as pedagogical implications for supporting this transitional stage in student development.