A brief description of Plagiarism for international students.

1. Academic Integrity:
Plagiarism& How to Stay Safe.
Avoiding Plagiarism: What is Plagiarism and its impacts

2. • Plagiarism is using someone else’s words, sentences, thoughts, ideas and
presenting them as your own.
• Plagiarism is “to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's
own: use (another's production) without crediting the source” and/or “to
commit literary theft : present as new and original an idea or product derived
from an existing source”1
• Plagiarism can be accidental or deliberate.
1 https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plagiarize
What is Plagiarism?
Office of Global Affairs

3. Office of Global Affairs
https://www.planetminecraft.com/blog/plagiarism-a-worldwide-problem-a-thoughtful-blog/

4. Consequences of Plagiarism
• Plagiarism is a serious academic offense.
• Plagiarism is considered academic dishonesty at WVU.
• Consequences can be, but are not limited to the following:
• Failing an assignment
• The lowering of your course grade
• Failing a course
• Removal from the university
• Revocation of your Visa
• For more information and to review WVU’s Policy on Academic Dishonesty, please
see:
http://catalog.wvu.edu/undergraduate/coursecreditstermsclassification/#academici
ntegritytext

5. Know
the
Rules!
How to know if you are plagiarizing?
• Did you copy the words of someone else? Either from a source (book,
website etc.) or from another student?
• Did you put your name on a paper that someone else wrote?
• Did you put someone else’s ideas into your own words but not give
them credit for the idea?
• Did you purchase or download the paper from the web and turn
it in as your own?
• Did you use statistics, graphs, or drawings that you did not gather or create?
• If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you have plagiarized.

6. How can you avoid plagiarism?
• Citations – Be sure to cite any and all of your sources. Complete citations will make a
difference.
• If you have used a website in your work, be sure to include the URL.
• Know MLA (Modern Language Association) style and how to use it to document your
ideas, opinions and the facts. For more information on MLA, please see
https://www.mla.org/MLA-Style. If your faculty would prefer you to use a different
style of citation, please see the WVU libraries site for citation help.
(https://lib.wvu.edu/instruction/guides/citation/)
• If you are not sure if an idea, opinion or fact should be documented, err on the side
of caution and document.

7. Student Resources
• WVU has a plagiarism avoidance tutorial through the Library. You can access this
tutorial by visiting: https://lib.wvu.edu/instruction/plagiarism/
• You can log in with you WVU ID and password or you can review the tutorial as a
guest.
• If you are not sure, ask! The library is a great resource as well as your academic
advisor and your professors.

8. More Student Resources
• Tutoring Centers at WVU -
https://studentsuccess.wvu.edu/services/tutoring-centers
• SPEAKWRITE – Writing Studio for all WVU students. You can work with
one-on-one peer consultants. https://speakwrite.wvu.edu/writing-studio
• Student Success Coaching – Coaches work with students to assist with the
coming to WVU as well as help you stay on track academically.
https://studentsuccess.wvu.edu/services/student-success-coaching
• MindFit Academic Enhancement – This program offers academic support
to students who learn differently. https://mindfit.well.wvu.edu/academic-
enhancement