Plagiarism

Plagiarism is when you claim someone’s words or ideas as your own. Many students resort to plagiarism when they don’t have time to finish something, to don’t understand it, or are simply too lazy to do it themselves. Plagiarizing is common in high school, but that does not make it something good to do at all. One downfall to plagiarizing in high school is that you won’t really learn anything. Another is that, if you get caught, there will be severe consequences that vary depending on your school and/or teacher. Most importantly, plagiarizing throughout high school may make it into a habit which will last into your college years. When you are caught plagiarizing in the universities, you won’t just get a zero on the assignment, get a phone call to your parents, or any simple things like that. You will be kicked out of the school. No refunds, no diploma… nothing but a great feeling of shame. You also have to be careful with your work to make sure no one copies it without you knowing. For example, my mother got 15 points taken off on an assignment, because two other girls in her class had somehow gotten a hold of her work, and wrote papers nearly identical to hers. While the teacher did believe my mom when she said it was her work, she was forced to take off points since there was no solid proof. As you can see, plagiarizing leads to several more consequences than anything good that can come out of it.

So if you have any common sense, don’t do it.