Student beliefs and attitudes about authorial identity in academic writing

Pittam, Gail, Elander, James, Lusher, Joanne, Fox, Pauline and Payne, Nicola ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5885-9801 (2009) Student beliefs and attitudes about authorial identity in academic writing. Studies in Higher Education, 34 (2) . pp. 153-170. ISSN 0307-5079 [Article] (doi:10.1080/03075070802528270)

Abstract

Authorial 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.

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