Özgür Çelik, Balikesir University, Turkey

What is wrong is wrong, even if everyone is doing it.
Right is still right, even if no one else is doing it (Unknown).

A great majority of academic papers begin with a definition of the concept to be discussed. However, I am not going to do that in this paper. I am not going to start with Macfarlane, Zhang, and Pun’s (2014) definition in which they define academic integrity as the values, behavior, and conduct of academics in all aspects of their practice. Nor am I going to use the definition in the glossary of European Network for Academic Integrity that states, “Compliance with ethical and professional principles, standards, practices and a consistent system of values that serve as guidance for making decisions and taking actions in education, research, and scholarship.” (Tauginienė et al., 2018, p. 8). Instead, I will break this convention by putting a quotation above to give you food for thought about what academic integrity truly is.

In a nutshell, academic integrity is all about a strict commitment to honesty. It sometimes requires breaking conventions to elevate the honesty in every aspect of the learning environment. However, it is quite challenging to achieve this, just as I failed in following the convention to begin with the definition of academic integrity in this paper.

To understand the relationship between academic integrity and L2 writing development, it is important to understand what academic integrity is. Academic integrity is related to the attitudes, thoughts, behaviors, and cognitions of all stakeholders within an educational community. Therefore, upholding academic integrity requires an institution-wide effort. Such an effort would provide many positive outcomes to the learning environment. One of the most important outcomes is that a culture of academic integrity enables learners to take responsibility for their own learning process. Also, adopting an institution-wide teaching and learning approach that is guided by academic integrity has implications for supporting students’ academic writing development (Morris, 2016). Academic integrity and writing development have an intermingled relationship; they affect and are affected by one another. Academic integrity acts as a prerequisite for students’ writing development. By implementing academic integrity at a young age, students learn to rely on their own skills to complete writing projects rather than borrowing from other sources. In other words, they learn to take responsibility for their own writing process. This is especially true at the K12 level, where students start to develop their writing styles and find their voices. It is essential to develop those skills within a culture of academic integrity.

Fostering academic integrity is best achieved by creating a culture rooted in fundamental values of academic integrity (honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility and courage) throughout the school environment. It is essential to help students internalize these values so that they can be honest in their work, respect others’ works, and take responsibility for their learning process. Students who embrace these values are likely to develop better writing skills because they will be more motivated to write and more open to learning how to write. Therefore, writing education in a value-driven school environment should exploit students’ writing potential to the fullest. However, this journey requires a systematic effort and the involvement of all stakeholders, from parents and students to teachers and administrators. More importantly, sustainable changes and effective academic integrity strategies at the institutional level are achieved through designing and implementing an academic integrity policy, which is a cornerstone for creating a culture of academic integrity at a school.

One fundamental success indicator of a well-established culture of academic integrity in a school is the ability to prevent plagiarism. Students who adhere to academic conventions such as avoiding plagiarism demonstrate better success in academic writing (Petrić, 2012). Therefore, it can be argued that plagiarism may negatively affects writing development. Moreover, some studies show that students tend to plagiarize more in foreign language classes (Chen & Nai-Kuang Ku, 2008) due to poor writing skills, which may happen more frequently in schools where plagiarism cases are not monitored. Therefore, academic integrity policies should include sections on L2 writing.

One way to establish and maintain academic integrity is to develop policies that adopt detective, reactive, and proactive approaches. Detective and reactive approaches represent the summative side of the policies (violation types and sanctions to be imposed), while a proactive approach reflects its formative nature. The primary goal of the proactive approach is to provide educative activities to prevent academic misconduct by raising the awareness level of students and helping them internalize academic integrity. These educative activities should aim at improving writing skills by teaching students how to correctly paraphrase, refine others’ ideas, and use citations appropriately. L2 writing education constitutes a significant part of this proactive approach because one of the main reasons why students plagiarize might relate to their poor writing skills. Therefore, improving L2 writing development can mitigate plagiarism incidents. Conversely, raising academic integrity awareness may promote the development of L2 writing skills. Students who act in integrity are expected to be more motivated to learn how to write rather than inclining toward dishonest solutions. On the other hand, students who do not embrace the fundamental values of academic integrity may not give due importance to the writing process, which can negatively affect their writing skills. For example, in my own university writing classes, I have observed that most students who plagiarize share one thought in common: “What’s wrong with using texts I found online?” A bit of digging reveals that their stories are the same: “Sir, I’ve been downloading writing assignments, writing my name on them, and handing them in since high school.” You may think that this is an extreme example. However, I have witnessed this very situation many times in the past ten years, and this is a symptom of a school that lacks a culture of academic integrity. Most of these students have little or no awareness of academic integrity, and as a result, demonstrate poorer writing skills.

Another common academic misconduct type I have witnessed in L2 writing classes is patchwriting, which occurs when students write their papers by “compiling” texts from various sources. In such cases, students just “produce” a text; they do not write it. Pecorari and Petric (2014) argue that patchwriting can be a useful transition stage for L2 writers. This stage can help students develop rhetorical awareness and writing practices, but it should be guided by the fundamental values of academic integrity. Otherwise, it may result in the formation of negative habits for students and may hinder their writing development. It’s important to ensure, therefore, that students learn how to express their own ideas through writing rather than compiling texts from other sources.

In conclusion, it is essential to understand the relationship between academic integrity and L2 writing development. It is also worth noting that most academic integrity centers have an academic writing unit, which indicates how these two constructs are related. In this respect, it is crucial for students to develop L2 writing skills within a culture of academic integrity, especially at the K-12 level, where students start to develop their own writing styles. So, here are some key takeaways and suggestions for policymakers and teachers:

• Academic integrity and L2 writing development have an intermingled relationship. Academic integrity acts as a prerequisite for students’ writing development. By learning about academic integrity at a young age, students learn to rely on their own skills to complete writing projects rather than unnecessarily borrowing from others. In other words, they learn to take responsibility of their own writing process. This is especially true at the secondary school level, where students start to develop their writing styles and find their voices. It is essential to achieve this within a culture of academic integrity.
• Academic integrity is best achieved by creating a corresponding culture at the institution. Developing an academic integrity policy is the first and the best way to create a culture of academic integrity. K12 schools should devote considerable time and effort to develop their own academic integrity policy.
• Academic integrity policies present summative and formative documents. As for their formative sides, they should include educative activities to raise the students’ awareness level. More importantly, academic integrity policies should create a framework for the quality and quantity of L2 writing education delivered in the educative environment.

References

Chen, T., & Nai-Kuang Ku, T. (2008). EFL students: Factors contributing to online plagiarism. In T. Roberts (Ed.), Student plagiarism in an online world: Problems and solutions (pp. 82-84). London: IGI Global. doi: 10.4018/978-1-59904-801-7.ch006

Macfarlane, B., Zhang, J., & Pun, A. (2012). Academic integrity: a review of the literature. Studies in Higher Education, 39(2), 339-358. doi: 10.1080/03075079.2012.709495

Morris, E. (2016). Academic integrity: a teaching and learning approach. In T. Bretag (Ed), The handbook of academic integrity (pp. 1037-1053). Singapore: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-981-287-098-8