Use of Direct Quotes in the Literature Reviews of Master’s Theses and Doctoral Dissertations: A Qualitative Case Study of L2 Graduate Students

This dissertation reports the results of a qualitative case study of L2 graduate students at a public, four-year institution in the southeastern region of the United States. The study seeks to understand through implementing the theoretical framework of Legitimate Peripheral Participation (LPP) (Lave & Wenger, 1991), how L2 graduate students learn about direct quoting in formal and informal teaching settings in their home countries and at the U.S. universities. It also investigates to what extend L2 graduate students’ understanding of use of direct quotes in literature reviews of theses and dissertations help them to establish themselves as members of their disciplines. Primary collection methods are semi-structured interviews, text-based interviews, and textual analysis with four L2 graduate students from disciplines of sociology and history. Drawing from student participants’ experiences learning and using direct quotes, the study provides practical suggestions for L2 graduate writing classes about how to help L2 graduate students with learning about direct quoting and use of direct quotes in various rhetorical functions in literature reviews of their theses and dissertations. The study also presents recommendations for future research on source use and direct quoting