The University of West Georgia Department of English has assembled  these resources to help combat the problem of plagiarism by clarifying what plagiarism is and offering suggestions as to how it might be discouraged, avoided, and detected.

Although there are many forms and variations of plagiarism and academic dishonesty, in general, the English Department, in agreement with the University of West Georgia's policy on academic dishonesty , defines plagiarism as using the words and/or ideas of another without properly giving credit to the source(s).

It should be noted that unintentional plagiarism is plagiarism nonetheless.

In addition to obvious methods of plagiarism such as intentionally representing someone else's words as one's own, other acts such as "making up" sources, turning in work done in fulfillment of another course, or receiving excessive assistance are all forms of academic dishonesty, and subject to the penalties for plagiarism .