With your help, the WaLC's tutors can combat plagiarism by teaching good research
and citation habits. Rather than policing plagiarism, WaLC tutors work with students
and professors to ensure that writers understand the value of original work and the
necessity of cited sources. For information about ChatGPT and other AI programs designed
to create content, visit the released by the Coulter Faculty Commons.
How to Help Our Tutors Help Your Students
- Be sure to include the Academic Integrity Policy in your syllabus.
- Include in your syllabus the documentation format your class or discipline will be
using, and briefly explain its unique characteristics. It is easier for our tutors
to help with citations if there is a clear style requirement. The following documentation
styles are available and can be downloaded as PDF files: MLA , APA , AMA , and Turabian .
- Invite WaLC writing tutors to your class to present our Plagiarism Workshop. This workshop allows students to practice summarizing, paraphrasing, and citing
outside material in order to enhance their essays, not to comprise the whole of their
essays.
- Make your students aware of the WaLC's resource for Avoiding Plagiarism. We provide definitions of plagiarism, steps for how to cite sources, and explanations
and examples of summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting source material.
- Evaluate your students鈥� work to identify those who need further help. Contact the
WaLC at 828.227.3426 to discuss strategies for improving individual student performance.
Ways to Plagiarism-Proof your Research Assignments:
- Assign topics and ways of approaching those topics that are unique to your class and
course material, as well as slightly different from assignments in previous semesters.
- Break down your assignments into meaningful steps, including requiring students to
develop a useful research question.
- Assign an annotated bibliography as an early step in the research process.
For more faculty help, visit the Coulter Faculty Commons' Academic Resources for Faculty.
If you have a plagiarism-proofing strategy to share, send it to walc@wcu.edu.