Source-use Practice in Research Reports: The Case of Colleges of Applied Sciences Undergraduates in the Disciplines of Accounting and International Business

Source-use practice is important to the construction of scientific knowledge. This study attempts to develop understanding of the use of sources in undergraduate research report writing. It is situated in one college of the Colleges of Applied Sciences (CAS) in Oman, and examines the different rhetorical functions of citations used by final-year Accounting and International Business students, as well as the contextual layers that seem to have shaped students’ source-use practices. Data were collected from 11 students from each discipline and their 6 teachers, and 22 research reports were analysed to identify the rhetorical function of all citations appearing in all sections of students’ research reports. Petrić’s (2007) typology, which consists of 9 functions of citations, was used to analyse the data. Results of the textual analysis show that most citations were located in the literature review chapters, and citations were mainly used to display knowledge and summarize sources. There were a few attempts to use sources for more complex rhetorical functions in both disciplines; these attempts were only made by students with a higher level of English proficiency. Findings also suggest two new functions that are not included in Petrić’s typology: textual structuring and acknowledgment of authorship for content display. These functions further indicate students’ extreme lack of understanding of the role of sources in academic writing and their inability to synthesize. In addition, relevant documents were examined and interviews with the students and their teachers were conducted. Analysis of these data suggest that the college, department, task, teacher, and prior student cohorts all play a role in influencing students’ source-use knowledge and practices. Pedagogical implications are suggested to inform EAP instruction regarding the teaching of source use and to guide constructive collaboration between EAP teachers and subject-area teachers in CAS to support the teaching of citation use.