Plagiarism, the act of copying another person’s work, with or without their permission, and presenting it as your own, can mean disaster for any student’s college career. With the internet, plagiarizing papers became much easier (“History essays for only $39.99! B grade or better guaranteed!”) and much more common.
Professors, however, aren’t buying it, and students who try to plagiarize are usually caught and penalized severely. And it’s hard to get away with. Professors really do pay attention to your writing style, and they’re liable to notice if you pay your smart roommate to write that essay for you. Many universities also subscribe to anti-plagiarism software that allows professors to submit each student’s paper to a database for analysis of its originality.
In many cases, plagiarism penalties include not only failing the assignment, but failing the entire course- all with few or no questions asked. So it’s probably much smarter for you to accept that C grade than to plagiarize an assignment and risk receiving an F.
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