18 - Plagiarism

An act of stealing of someone's idea, thoughts, or expressions and claiming it as your own work is called Plagiarism. The word "Plagiarize" according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, means to steal and to use without crediting the source. 

Plagiarism is subjected to punishments: suspension, expulsion, or penalties. For you to know if you're doing Plagiarism, here is a list:

        1. Turning in someone else's work as your own.

2. Copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit.

3. Not putting quotation marks.

4. Citing wrong information about the source.

5. Changing the words but copying the sentence structure of a source without any credit.

Schools are strict when it comes to plagiarizing. Students are given homework that involve researching information. Students tend to be lazy and just copy paste it without citing sources and that's why teachers have their own "plagiarize checkers" with them when they check homework submitted to them.

If a student is caught of Plagiarism, he/she may be expelled from school or be suspended. Now that's just in school but what if it is done in the public like in competitions over the world. Who knows what will they do to you once they found out your work is plagiarized. 

Source: http://www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism-101/what-is-plagiarism/