Plagiarism Essay

Plagiarism is stealing, cheating and just plain wrong. When you think of plagiarism, you probably just think of someone copying and pasting information from the Internet. But did you know that people can also plagiarize songs and not just information from the internet? Take Justin Bieber for example. He was sued back in 2013 for $10 million for copyright infringement. He supposedly stole lyrics from "two Virginia songwriters who claim that Bieber's song "Somebody to Love" contains numerous lyrical and stylistic similarities to the song they wrote in 2008 by the same name." (NY Daily News. Justin Bieber, Usher sued for $10 million for copyright infringement. February 06, 2014.)
How can you avoid plagiarism? In order to avoid plagiarism, you need to understand what plagiarism is. Plagiarism is when you take someone else's work and use it as your own without giving proper credit. It doesn't have to be just a paper you have to write for school, it could be off the internet, a book, an idea, or even a song. Now that you know what plagiarism is, you can learn how to avoid it. According to Indiana University, "you must give credit whenever you use another person’s idea, opinion, or theory; any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings—any pieces of information—that are not common knowledge; quotations of another person’s actual spoken or written words; or paraphrase of another person’s spoken or written words." ("Plagiarism: What It is and How to Recognize and Avoid It." Writing Tutorial Services, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 27 April 2004. 13 Feb 2014.) You also need to be sure you cite your sources correctly. If you don't cite your sources correctly, you could get in trouble for plagiarizing. There are also cites you can go on an...

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...y. "Plagiarism." Michigan State University Board of Trustees. Web. 11 Feb 2014.) Is it really worth plagiarizing? Plagiarizing has serious consequences that aren't worth the risk. The consequences of plagiarizing, depending on the policy, could range from getting an F on the assignment, an F in the course, or even as serious as getting kicked out of the college and never being able to come back. So to answer the question, "is it worth plagiarizing?" The answer is no. Why would you want to take the risk of getting kicked out of college? You're paying for your education and you're going to let it all go because you didn't want to do the work on your own? That's pure laziness and it shows that you don't care.
In conclusion, plagiarism is dishonest and should never be done no matter what. When you plagiarize, you are taking a risk and there are serious consequences.