THE USE OF ACADEMIC WRITING CONVENTIONS FOR PROPER REFERENCING AMONG POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS: A CASE OF KISII UNIVERSITY

Abstract

Readers expect academic writing to be clear, consistent and logically organized. As such
conventions of academic writing such as referencing should be strictly adhered to. Referencing
acknowledges the sources of the information presented and presents a defence from allegations of
plagiarism. Equally, the conventions of citing & referencing allows readers to independently
assess the quality of findings and conclusions in an academic piece based on its literature review.
This paper discusses use and misuse of writing conventions i.e. ‘and’, ampersand (&) and ‘et. al.’
in relation to referencing within post graduate theses of Kisii University. The study employed both
quantitative and qualitative research design through a systematic review and descriptive survey
sequentially. The systematic review quantitatively assessed thirty masters theses submitted to Kisii
University for the award of degrees on how they employed the three conventions under study –
‘and’, ampersand sign (&) and ‘et al’. Subsequently, a descriptive survey was utilized to examine
the findings of the systematic review. This was done through interviews with the deans of the
schools that were placed under study. The study found disparities in the use of the three
conventions across the schools under review which were associated to poor staffing and lack of
guidelines to strictly adhere to academic conventions. The study recommends continuous training
& development for lecturers to ensure such conventions are adhered to.