To check or not to check: Adolescents’ sourcing practices when writing from multiple texts

Writing from multiple texts is a crucial academic literacy practice at the university level. Therefore, students should learn to attend to, evaluate, and use information about the sources by the time they reach the end of upper secondary school. The present study investigated differences in upper secondary school students’ ( N = 87) sourcing practices when composing a short article based on multiple texts. The data consisted of students’ written articles and log files recording their time spent on the task and revisits to the source texts during the writing task. Based on analyses of sourcing in students’ written articles, five source user profiles were identified: (1) Advanced source users ( n = 18); (2) Elaborative source users ( n = 15); (3) Basic source users ( n = 15); (4) Vague source users ( n = 15); and (5) No-source users ( n = 24). Students in the three more capable profiles incorporated at least once an explicit source-content link into their articles, varying the number of source features used. During the writing task, Advanced source users revisited both more credible texts more frequently than less capable source users. Their composed articles also most often included citations and main claims from both more credible texts. Conversely, the other students who engaged in sourcing revisited and referenced only one more credible text. The results of the present study implicate that students might benefit from differentiated instructional support to accurately and elaborately cite sources in their writing.