Honestly and unfortunately, the OP is trying to make all international students look bad. I don't think there's anything else to call what s/he did but cheating. This case is not about forgetting to reference or cite a source properly. Rather, the student found some kind of instructor's manual online and straight up copied the answer for the assignment. And the OP writes about knowing full well that to be a 'direct copycat' is wrong at the university level. This isn't an issue of understanding cultural differences across nations or the challenges facing international students studying abroad. The reason OP is in such a predicament has little to do with being an international or domestic student, but because s/he is an unethical student who was caught cheating in a grossly blatant manner. While cultural differences and adjusting to studying stateside are valid and nuanced issues worthy of discussion (at least Nel and Jakrabite seem to be passionate about it), that's not what happened to the OP. What happened to the OP is that s/he got busted for cheating.
waitingtoexhale got a reaction from Andean Pat in cheating