Understanding Plagiarism

WSU and the Department of Human Development aim to assist students in presenting their own work professionally, and in learning how to give credit to others when drawing upon their work. Please use the following resources to assist you in becoming familiar with what constitutes plagiarism and how you can avoid it. Take pride in your original work. Give yourself plenty of time to complete assignments. Talk with your instructors about how to present your work, and the work of others well.

The WSU library has established a thorough explanation of plagiarism, and the academic integrity board and student handbook provide additional information. Use the following sites to better understand and to avoid plagiarism in your academic work.

• http://libraries.wsu.edu/library-instruction/plagiarism
• http://academicintegrity.wsu.edu/students/
• http://handbook.wsu.edu/handbook-home/ (see topics related to writing)

Consequences for plagiarism are outlined in your course syllabus too. Make sure that you are familiar with all of the information in these resources.

Two other helpful sources of information about plagiarism can be found from

• the University of Maryland http://www.umuc.edu/current-students/learning-resources/academic-integrity/tutorial/index.cfm and
• Indiana University https://www.indiana.edu/~academy/firstPrinciples/index.html.

​Quiz yourself. What do you know about...

• Intentional and unintentional plagiarism
• ​The primary reasons that students plagiarize and/or cheat
• ​Possible sanctions that could be imposed related to an academic integrity violations
• ​Possible consequences of supported plagiarism/cheating
• ​Signs of plagiarism that instructors and TAs attend to
• ​Whether or not images, audio or video need to be cited
• Whether or not you can drop a course if plagiarism is suspected
• Cultural differences related to crediting others' work

Ask your instructor about:

• Multiple submissions of the same work
• Collaborating on homework