Defining Plagiarism by Using a Discourse Analysis Approach

The purpose of this study aims at helping students define plagiarism by using a discourse analysis approach within the text of a model paper for advanced students interested in writing research papers. Inexperienced researchers are often tempted to commit several types of plagiarism across disciplines in academia. These intentional and unintentional patterns of plagiarism, which have something in common, open the possibilities of bridging the gap between English education and inter-discipline learning. The methodology in this paper is mainly based on literature review to define what a discourse analysis approach is, why it can help students avoid plagiarism; also, it explores preventive strategies to deal with an orchestrated model text based on technical, ethical, and cultural dimensions to avoid inappropriate copying; finally, it recommends that instructors should provide hypothetical cases for their students to decide which writer is guilty of plagiarism, and students need time to transform from the imitation stage to the creation stage of having their own writing styles.