Academic Integrity is taken very seriously in the US as our intellectual property rights, individuals own ideas, and to use an idea without properly crediting the person is morally wrong. If you are caught plagiarizing, it will have very serious consequences. You will fail the assignment and in some situations you could be expelled from the university. In the interviews conducted by Dr. Carr, four participants were greatly concerned with the academic code of integrity, which was very strictly followed in the US, as opposed to India. This code was something that these students had to be very careful about when they came to the US. In India, the participants mostly referred to their textbooks To do their assignments, and even during the exams, they just wrote what they had memorized from the textbooks, and didn't have to worry about any citations.
Because in India, they were tested more on the knowledge of the content than on the originality of their writing. It was also more common for students to copy each other's assignments, or help each other extensively in writing. The Chicago handbook for teachers defines plagiarism this way, copying a paper submitting a paper you didn't write. work you did on one course submitted for work in another without the professor's knowledge. Taking words pen by another person and inserting them in a paper without quotation marks, ideas and materials derived from other sources, it's okay as long as you give credit in a footnote. And finally, you do not need to give credit for citing factual information, which is commonly available.
With internet technology. Professors can copy your paper into an internet plagiarism checker, and determine if you plagiarize, so it's not as difficult as it once was to check for plagiarism. It may take you some time to adjust, but don't become discouraged. Most things in American universities have well defined guidelines, read the guidelines, understand them, and then begin applying the concepts and you'll be okay. Please take time to study the documents on plagiarism in our resources