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of Lesotho
[PP: 146-152]
influenced by the fact that the discussion projects were used, the researcher ensured
section is one of the most important sections that the students remained anonymous as
in any research as it is argumentative and explained below:
persuasive. It is in the discussion section A coding system was devised to
that writers explain and justify their results, identify the faculties of the students and the
relate them to the research aims and projects. Thus, projects from Agricultural
objectives, compare them to previous Economics were identified as FOA (which
studies and account for observed is the official abbreviation for the Faculty of
differences. For these reasons, the Agriculture) to represent the faculty and the
discussion section was deemed to provide a ten projects chosen were labelled 1-10. For
suitable context for the study of students’ instance, the first project was identified as
use of citations. FOA-1 and the fifth FOA-5. This was the
2.2 Method of Analysis same for all faculties. Language and Social
Using Hyland’s (2005:219) list of Education projects which belong to the
possible instances of citations, citations in Faculty of Education were identified as
the students’ texts were identified and FED; Nutrition projects which belong to the
counted with Wordsmith Tools Version 5-a Faculty of Health Sciences were identified
text analysis and concordance program. The as FHS; Historical Studies projects which
Concord tool provided lists of all belong to the Faculty of Humanities were
occurrences of the search items together identified as FOH; Biology projects which
with the context of use. The functions of the belong to the Faculty of Science and
citations were then interpreted. It is Technology were identified as FOST and
important to highlight that these two Political and Administrative Studies
methods of analysis, the computer-assisted projects which belong to the Faculty of
search and the manual analysis to interpret Social Sciences were identified as FSS.
the functions, complemented each other. 3. Findings and Discussion
While the software enabled the researcher Frequency counts indicate that students
to conveniently and quickly identify used a total of 374 citations. These
citations, it could only present them as consisted of both integral and non-integral
concordance lines. Their interpretation citations. It is interesting to note that the
depended on human judgment and it was students used four citation forms, namely
imperative that the researcher went through parentheses, source plus reporting verb
the texts to determine the functions of the phrase, footnotes and according to X
expressions used in the contexts of use. structure as exemplified below:
2.3 Ethical Considerations 1. It has been acknowledged that people in low
As regards ethical considerations, it is quality marriages have greater health risk as
to be noted that the students’ projects used they experience marital problems that lead to
in this study were in the public domain and development of stress (Baker 2000).[FHS-5]
2. Sheikh (1990) indicated that excess
therefore not dependent on ethical
accumulation of iron is rare and desirable limits
constraints. This is in view of the fact that range from 2 to 10ppm.[FOA-4]
they were put in the library, which is a 3. The LHWP has provided an impetus for
public place, and so anyone could have tourism development in the Lesotho
access to them without having to seek mainland areas. The Ministry of Tourism
permission of the authors. However, to has acquired sites that belong to the LHWP
protect the identity of the students whose with the intention of transforming these
International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies ISSN:2308-5460
Volume: 04 Issue: 01 January- March, 2016
Page | 149
International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies ISSN:2308-5460
Volume: 04 Issue: 01 January- March, 2016
sites into holiday villages, guesthouses and were 325 citations used for this purpose.
lodges and to include entertainment This translates to 87% of all uses. These are
facilities19. [FOH-4] examples:
4. According to Gabriele (1995) the loss of 5. According to Hill (1992), the amount of
employment opportunities and a decline in fecal coli forms is 200-1000 per 100ml is
food production may also lead to a direct acceptable if used in crops for human
decline in the number of people employed consumption.[FOA-3]
in agriculture and result in people being 6. Witney, Cataldo, and Rolfes (2002)
deprived of their entitlement to sufficient indicate that in elderly, fingers often lose
food. [FSS-1] strength and dexterity, making it difficult to
The table below shows the frequency counts peel vegetables. [FHS-3]
for each of the citation forms: 7. The African potato plant has been reported
Table 1: Citation forms used by the students to have an ability to stimulate the pancreas
Citation Form Frequency Percentage to release insulin, which removes excess
Parentheses 162 43% glucose from the blood and converts it to
X + reporting 97 26% glycogen (Lukhele, 2004). [FOST-10]
VP The next most frequent function was
Footnotes 91 24%
According to X 24 6%
comparison with other studies. There were
Total 374 100% twenty such cases. The students however
As can be observed from Table1 above, seemed to prefer to report on those studies
there was a clear preference for non-integral to which their studies were similar. Of the
citations as these forms (parentheses and eighteen citations, fourteen showed
footnotes) accounted for two-thirds of all similarities. These are examples:
citations. This choice of non-integral 8. The majority of the farmers mentioned the
citations might suggest the students’ problems of diseases and parasites. Nsoso
et al (2000) observed a similar situation in
conscious effort to concentrate more on Botswana. [FOA-7]
arguments and not who proposed them. 9. The experimental data obtained in this
This is in line with the CSS instruction that study indicate that Hhemerocallidea does
academic style is impersonal. possess chemical constituents with
With regard to the use of integral hypoglycemic effect on the blood glucose
forms, it was observed that students relied levels of normal and diabetic rats. These
mostly on structures involving reporting findings are in agreement with the works of
verbs. These structures constituted 81% of Zibula and Ojewole (2000) and Ojewole
integral forms. The students used fifteen (2005). [FOST-2]
different verbs: argue, find, hold, indicate, A few students also showed the differences
maintain, mention, observe, point out, between their study findings and other
reflect, report, show, state, stipulate, researchers’ findings. There were only four
support and say. The verbs that were most such cases:
frequent were indicate (22 occurrences), 10. From the results, a greater percentage of
state (19 occurrences), and find (10 farmers used the formal channel for the
disposal of their produce, which is really
occurrences). Other verbs occurred encouraging. On the contrary, Mochebelele
infrequently, sometimes only once. (1990) found that despite the establishment
As regards the functions, it was observed of the dairy plant and the milk collection
that, generally students in all faculties used centres, the volume of milk sold through
citations for attribution, that is, to report this channel remains low.[FOA-5]
what the cited authors did or said. There
Cite this article as: Letsoela, P. M. (2016). Citations in Academic Writing of Undergraduate Students of
National University of Lesotho. International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies. 4(1), 146-
152. Retrieved From http://www.eltsjournal.org
Page | 150
Citations in Academic Writing of Undergraduate Students of National University… Letsoela, Puleng ‘Makholu
Cite this article as: Letsoela, P. M. (2016). Citations in Academic Writing of Undergraduate Students of
National University of Lesotho. International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies. 4(1), 146-
152. Retrieved From http://www.eltsjournal.org
Page | 152