Our speech is filled with others' words: Understanding university student and instructor opinions towards paraphrasing through a Bakhtinian lens

International audienceAt the center of academic writing sits the practice of paraphrasing. Writers are constantly paraphrasing the ideas, findings and language of others. Despite this commonplace presence, it continues to be a challenging activity for both students to engage in and for teachers to instruct. Bakhtinian theory on language use and learning could help address struggles regarding paraphrasing observed in academia. Through a Bakhtinian lens, this article presents the attitudes towards paraphrasing held by undergraduate students and writing instructors at a large US university. Using classroom ethnographic methods, the author relies on observations, interviews and textual analysis to discover how paraphrasing is understood by a specific group of individuals and how Bakhtinian theory can explain it, specifically the aspects of dialogism, response and language appropriation. Three related themes identified connect paraphrasing to work and critical thinking, maintenance of voice and textual ownership , and its value as a preferred form of source use despite its associations to plagiarism. Theoretical and pedagogical implications are also discussed