The risks of plagiarizing, and what it is

“The practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own.” This being the exact definition given when searching up the definition on google. Although this is a great quick explanation, plagiarism is a much bigger subject. To start with the basics, what are some examples of plagiarism? The first thing that comes to mind would be copying and pasting off of Wikipedia for a high school assignment, however, there’s many more examples of plagiarism that we may not be aware of. Not acknowledging a source, switching words around, unintentionally plagiarizing, and submitting your peers’ old work, these are only some of many ways to plagiarize. The next question people often ask is what are the consequences of plagiarism, and why is it such a serious matter? The answer to this question is surprisingly simple, if plagiarism was allowed, there would be no originality in this world and there’s no way to define intelligence. How can we differentiate levels of intelligence if everything is a replica of a past project? The consequences of plagiarism vary, it truly depends on the context. According to NBC News, there have been several past stories where university professors have been found guilty of plagiarizing. From a student’s perspective, majority of teachers have a standard rule where all plagiarism results in an immediate failure, this is a minimal punishment. After all my research, I now fully understand the extremity of plagiarism and why it is taken so seriously by students, teachers, and professors worldwide.