Plagiarism

There is no doubt about it that plagiarism is wrong. There are several reasons for this. There are four main reasons for this though. First, plagiarism is unethical. If someone plagiarizes they are in fact stealing. If one plagiarizes that means that they are taking what someone else wrote and using it as if they wrote it themselves. It is no different than taking someone's wallet or other belongings. The second main reason is that when one plagiarizes they do not get to experience the amount of learning that they could if they had wrote it themselves. If one plagiarizes they are simply regurgitating information that someone else has already gathered and compiled into a source. It would be much better for that person to read and analyze the research for themselves and write it in their own words. The third reason is that when one plagiarizes they are trashing their own credibility. When someone lies to another person they have lost all credibility. Plagiarism is no different. When one passes someone else's work as their own it is the same as lying. The fourth and possibly most important of all reasons to avoid plagiarism is that it is illegal. The punishments can be severe. In school it is considered a form of academic dishonesty and can be punishable by anything from a 0 on the assignment to expulsion. In the professional word one can be sued and fined for infringing on copyrights. When someone writes something, that person has done the work to research, gather, and interpret data that they have found. When someone else comes along and takes that work and passes it along as their own they steal another person's hard work. In addition to that they do not get the educational experience as if they would have wrote it in their own words. In addition to those two reasons if someone plagiarism they throw all of their credibility out of the window and they can be punished to the point of being sued or being expelled from school.

Harris, Muriel, and Jennifer L. Kunka. "Research." Prentice Hall Reference Guide. 8th ed. Boston: Pearson Learning Soulitions, 2011. 378-79. Print.