Everything That's Wrong with Plagiarism!

April 29, 2014 - PRLog -- Everyone knows that plagiarism is thought of as wrong, but not everyone knows why. Many think their teachers, professors, or editors are just being overly fussy and demanding, but the reasons why plagiarism is wrong actually go much deeper than rigid academic standards. What's really wrong with plagiarism? Why is it such a bad idea? Everything is wrong with plagiarism, and the following five reasons will show you why:

1. You'll get caught.
In the digital age, it's extremely easy to catch a plagiarist. Simply pasting a paragraph into Google will pull up its original source. Even if you alter the words or word order to try to avoid this, there are programs like Copyscape that are expressly designed to detect more advanced types of plagiarism. It's no longer hard to catch a copycat. You'll spend as much time trying to forge an article or essay that won't be detected by these methods as you would spend simply writing your own work!

2. It's illegal.
When you steal someone else's written work, you are violating their copyright, as they own all the rights as the creator of that work. The crime of plagiarism is a form of copyright infringement and it is fully punishable by law. According to Wikipedia, "Copyright infringement is the use of works under copyright, infringing the copyright holder's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce, distribute, display or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works, without permission from the copyright holder, which is typically a publisher or other business representing or assigned by the work's creator."
If you get caught violating this law in the United States, you could easily be sued. And don't think that just because the original author of the work has passed away, you can steal it. US copyright protection lasts for at least the original author's lifetime PLUS 70 years.

3. You'll never develop your own skills.
Why are you in school, or writing at all, if not to develop skills you wish to use in a future career? When you plagiarize, you are not thinking at all about how to write high-quality content, so you will never develop the ability to write properly on your own. Imagine this: even if you somehow never get caught for stealing another's work, what if people are so impressed by your stolen content that they hire you, just to find out you can't actually do the job on your own? You will be discovered to be fraudulent and develop a bad reputation that will make it hard to get future jobs. It's much better to develop genuine skills while young. Trust me, practice will make perfect!

4. It's unfair to others who work hard.
Other authors and students work hard to get their accolades. By trying to cheat the system, you are unfairly creating competition for those accolades and making the lives of honest, hard-working people more difficult than they need to be. The harder these people have it, the more discouraged they will get, and the less original, high-quality content there will be in the world to enrich society. Originality and creativity should always be allowed center stage!

5. It's not hard to write your own material using proper attribution!
Why bother risking all of the above when it's really not difficult to write your own material? All it takes is proper attribution and a little creative thought. It's natural and necessary to employ others’ research in your written work. You're fully allowed to do so as long as you credit the original author properly and use the facts to support your own opinions. Take a moment once you have gathered all the facts and think about them. Surely, you have opinions about the subject of your work, and your viewpoint is as valid and worthwhile as anyone else's! Take the time to develop your own voice; it will enrich you as a person, as well as enriching society as a whole.
To make sure that your work is wholly original and contains proper attribution, so that you will not be unfairly accused of plagiarism, always have your document proofread and/or edited by paper editing services such as CollegePaperReview. (http://www.collegepaperreview.com/) We can give you the guidance you need to help you write a professional, original article – every time!

"For a particular lab report we were asked to describe how a strain gauge works in a Wheatstone bridge. Most people remembered what was explained during lecture and some cited internet sources. There were two students who exactly copied and pasted the workings of the strain gauge as explained by Wikipedia. Of course, they were found out and given 0 for the assignment." - Nicole, biomedical engineering undergraduate student.