An Analysis of Citation Errors of Undergraduate EFL Students at Misurata University

Academic writing involves integrating information from other sources into the original essay. EFL students often experience difficulties when citing these sources in their own essays. This study aims to identify the citation errors committed by undergraduate EFL students and explore the contextual patterns surrounding these errors when they write their academic essays. The participants of this study are a sample of 18 English major students enrolled in an academic writing course, spring semester 2026, at the Department of English, Faculty of Languages and Translation, Misurata University. The study follows a mixed-methods descriptive research design. The data for this study consisted of students written essays. The data were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. The findings suggest that students were generally able to identify appropriate points at which external sources could be incorporated to support their arguments, but they face a systematic barrier in managing the technical mechanics of source integration. Therefore, citation instruction should focus on explicit and contrastive modeling that clarifies why mechanics matter and provides procedural scaffolding to reduce cognitive load during textual integration.