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Why is plagiarism so bad in scientific and academic writing?

One might not know that Martin Luther King Jr was accused of plagiarism for his famous speech “I have a dream.” This speech was a huge success; it inspired thousands of people and decades ago society still remembers it. These days, a few generations later, students in the USA study about this speech and events of that time as a part of their History classes. But even with all his accomplishments and credentials, you’d be surprised to hear that Martin Luther King Jr was accused of plagiarism. In fact, some charged him with being “very inspired” by an African American preacher named Archibald Carey Jr with his “I have a dream speech.”

Plagiarism is a big deal, and professors always warn their students numerous times about it before assigning academic papers. When you use an essay writing service online, you might be worried about the same, not knowing that those services have a very strict zero-plagiarism policy. Let’s dig deeper into the question and find out why plagiarism is considered inappropriate and oftentimes even illegal.

Plagiarism is a theft

Everyone is aware that stealing items, cars, and other property is illegal. If you take somebody else’s ideas or any materials trying to pass them off as your own, it is deemed to be theft of intellectual property. That’s why it’s so important to cite everything correctly in your essays, using the proper paper format. Otherwise, the plagiarism report that every college uses to check academic integrity will show a high similarity score, proving that your work is not original. When writing an essay, consider free services online that check if a paper is plagiarized before submitting your assignment.

The academic community is very harsh on plagiarism because their livelihood and credentials depend on the works they publish. Academics value their reputation because it’s all about integrity, credibility, and ethics. For those who lie about their work, trying to steal somebody else’s ideas, academics lose their respect and start thinking very little of them.

Plagiarism damages reputation

If a scholar is charged with plagiarism, it significantly damages their reputation within the scientific community. If you study at the university, it will damage your relationships with your professor because they expect you to write an original and personalized paper, and plagiarism is considered cheating.

Allegations of plagiarism publicly damage the reputation of any writer; even if they did it unintentionally, it’s difficult to prove. One of the real-time cases of plagiarism in academic writing was Marks Chabedi, a former professor of the University of Witwatersrand. When the academic community discovered that his dissertation contained a significant part of plagiarism, he was fired from his job and lost his reputation as a professor. Unfortunately, it’s not the only case of academic dishonesty. You can review some more by doing a quick search online.

Qualifications have to be earned fairly

Any certificate or degree you earn has to demonstrate your own knowledge and skill. Needless to say that companies around the world value candidates who are fair in their acknowledgments, who have top-notch research skills, and articulate their ideas coherently. That’s why students have so much paperwork in college. It provides them with valuable knowledge and skills for their future careers. If you cheat when writing your dissertations and plagiarize from somebody else’s work, don’t expect that this truth will not be revealed someday. Professional and quality writing takes time and effort. Still, it gives confidence that you obtain your credentials fairly and will not lose your career and reputation one day because you plagiarized your work and qualifications.

And, of course, those writers who were once accused of plagiarism will not be trusted anymore. Even if their next works will be written exceptionally and originally.

Plagiarism may be accidental

Well, even though it’s not a good excuse, it’s still possible. For the most part, it happens when students don’t know how to cite the sources they used properly. That’s why it’s highly recommended to always proofread your work before submitting it in order to spot the mistakes. Don’t forget to add quotation marks and check how to cite the sources properly according to the paper format you need to use.

Writing quality papers from scratch may be challenging for students for whom English is the second language. If you only start your learning path and feel that you need assistance, the CustomWritings.com website is an essay writing service that provides help from expert writers. If you decide to become a customer and buy a custom-written paper, one of the top writers will proofread your paper, double-check your custom instructions, and ensure that everything is cited correctly. The service has excellent reviews from its clientele, so check it out if you want to make sure that your paper doesn’t contain plagiarism.

Plagiarism shows the lack of creative thinking

The best writers don’t need to steal somebody else’s works. They have a vivid imagination (if they write books), they have a theory they want to prove or share with the audience (if they’re scholars). If academics steal ideas, they publicly demonstrate a lack of original, analytical, and creative thinking. Wow, who would like to be publicly accused of that?

If you’re assigned every topic in college, excellent research will get your head around the topic. You’ll start generating ideas and narrowing down the areas you want to focus on pretty fast. Remember that writing teaches you a lot of valuable skills, and you learn plenty of new information while researching materials. Any company would gladly hire a candidate who has strong writing and research skills. That’s definitely something that every student should put some time and effort into.

Final Word

The academic community is very harsh on plagiarism. It’s considered cheating and stealing. It demonstrates that a person has a lack of creative and analytical thinking. It ruins people’s reputations because nobody will want to work with them and trust them anymore. Reviewing some notorious cases of plagiarism, we see that people lose their jobs and everything they have worked for was discredited as soon as plagiarism was discovered. That’s why it’s important to write original papers. All you need to do is trust yourself and find the topic you’re passionate about.

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