The rewards of plagiarism and other forms of copying another’s work may seem abundant; however, several have repeatedly established that all that is being done during plagiarizing is hurting the writer. There are numerous reasons for this, and it is easy to see that the benefits of writing your own paper outweigh the time that you have to put into it. The whole point of written essays is to drive information further and attain an understanding that cannot be achieved by just listening and paying attention in class.

Plagiarism is defined as, “the practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own.” Failing to take copyright laws seriously can fling you in serious trouble, even if it is just a school project. You never know where your essay might end up, however unlikely it is that it would show up on a website. Plagiarism.org has stated on their website that one out of three students surveyed admitted to plagiarizing at least once. Keep in mind, not everyone admits to their wrong-doing.

Also, as technology grows more advanced through time, it is harder to plagiarize and get away with it, especially if the essay was turned in online. There are now options to scan for plagiarism by using different features, so you cannot exactly expect to get away with it anymore, but people still do it.

You also have to take in mind that you are cheating yourself. Even though everybody has been told this at least once, it is not seen as seriously as it should be at this point. Not only does it keep you from learning sometimes valuable information, but it harms your grade if you get caught, and can also damage your grade on an upcoming test that you did not properly study for. Writing an assigned paper using lots of correct information (not Wikipedia) can boost your grade through the simple act of writing and can also help retain all the information you learn, helping you score better on tests that contain the information you wrote the essay over.

Although not plagiarized, this information is certainly not original. Over and over people have spoken about plagiarism and how it is a bad idea. It should be common knowledge at this point, but the idea is plagiarism is high risk and high reward. In the head of a misinformed student, the risks are often overlooked.

“Facts & Stats.” Plagiarism.org. Web. 2 Dec. 2015