Top Ten Reasons

NOT to Plagiarize!

10. I

kno

w ho

w to

Goo

gle.

Seriously, guys. I can work the Google just as well as you can. If it comes up when you search for “Julius Caesar Essay,” what makes you think it won’t come up when I search for the same thing?

9. I’

m n

ot st

upid

. When I have a student sleep through pre-writing and drafting, and suddenly they turn in a completed essay in one class period? IT’S A MIRACLE!? No, it’s

cheating. Duh.

8. N

o on

e bu

t you

is

writi

ng fo

r thi

s as

signm

ent.

I wrote the essay prompts all by myself. That means no one on the internet has an essay written for the same prompt you do. Guess what – if you don’t write on the prompt, you’re going to fail anyway.

7. I

know

you

don

’t kn

ow w

hat t

hose

wo

rds m

ean.

When you turn in an essay

that says “The sociological

ramifications of Caesar’s assassination were far-reaching enough to engender emotional responses throughout the

twentieth century”…guess

what. I KNOW YOU DIDN’T

WRITE THAT. You’re a sophomore in high school

– you don’t have a collegiate vocabulary!

6. P

lagi

arize

d pa

pers

ge

t bad

gra

des.

Listen, I know none of you are paying hundreds of dollars for your copy-pasted essays. If you go to one of those free essay sites, I can guarantee you one thing:

You’re going to get a crappy essay filled with grammatical errors and flawed arguments. Why cheat if you’ll fail anyway?

5. W

hen

I cat

ch y

ou,

you’

ll ge

t a ze

ro.

No exceptions, no explanations, no second chances. When I catch you, you will get a zero, and you cannot change that zero no matter what you do. I have had students fail my class because of one zero on one essay – don’t let that be you!

4. It

’s ch

eatin

g!

You know it’s wrong to take a picture of the SAT and give it to your friend, right? You know it’s cheating if you copy off someone else’s test, right? Then why would you copy someone else’s writing? It’s cheating just the same!

3. H

ow w

ould

you

feel

if

som

eone

took

you

r wo

rk?

When you plagiarize, you’re taking someone else’s work and claiming it’s your own. How would you like it if someone took the essay you worked hard on and got all the credit you earned? If you wouldn’t like it, don’t do it to someone else!

2. If

you

can

find

it,

so c

an y

our

clas

smat

es. Here’s a secret:

you’re not the only cheater in your class. Don’t you think I’m going to notice when you turn in the exact same essay as someone else?

1. Yo

u do

n’t

lear

n an

ythi

ng! Look, I don’t give you

essays because I like grading them. I give them to you because they help you learn. If you’re not doing the work, you’re not going to learn anything. And what’s the use in that?

So what is plagiarism?

1. C

opyp

asta If you copy and paste

sentences or paragraphs from the internet into your paper, that’s PLAGIARISM!

2. Q

uote

s with

no

cita

tions

If you want to use a quote from an outside source to back up your point, you have to cite it properly! This means (parenthetical citations) AND a Works Cited page!

3. To

o-lo

ng

quot

es

Quotes should be 15 words, MAX. If you’re quoting whole sentences or paragraphs, you’re

doing it wrong. You’re including too many words that aren’t your own, and that’s plagiarism!

4. “C

hang

ing

a fe

w wo

rds”

Don’t give me that crap about “I’ll change the words and make it my own.” That’s called paraphrasing and it follows the same rules for quoting. If you do it too much or without citations, that’s PLAGIARISM!

5. C

opyin

g fro

m

som

eone

else

. We do a lot of group pre-writing in here. But if you and your neighbor turn in the exact same essay, guess what? That’s PLAGIARISM!

And remember…

If an

y pa

rt is

plag

iariz

ed, i

t’s a

ll pl

agia

rized

. I don’t care if it was the whole paper or just one sentence. If you plagiarized, you will get a ZERO, no ifs, ands, or buts. Period. Zero. No make-ups. Nothing. Just a big fat zero.