Thoughts on Plagiarism

Plagiarism is cheating, and cheating, just like shoplifting or violence is a question of ethics and moral value. I know that some people consider both cheating and shoplifting as OK things to do. Their thinking is that as long as you aren't hurting anyone by what you do and only benefitting yourself, it's not that bad. For me, I just don't do it because I don't see the need in doing it. First of all you have to spend hours online searching for the perfect pieces to plagiarize, then you have to make them all fit together, and then you have to be worried everyday until you get your grade that you will be caught and kicked out of school. To me it's not worth the risk or the stress that comes along with it. There are other consequences that come along as well, that people don't consider. When we use someone else's material instead of making ourselves analyze a topic we don't exercise our brains in that area. We learn from everything we do and by simply copying we limit the amount of academic learning achieved.