Why should you stay away from plagiarism completely?

Visualise that you have toiled on writing something with all you constructive input, and by the end it looks like something you wanted, and you feel very proud of the outcome because a lot of sweat and blood has gone into creating this. But, soon you find out that, what is actually your hard work and effort is being used by someone else in their name. How would you feel? Undoubtedly, you would get angry and annoyed apart from being disheartened. This is the story of plagiarism and it isn’t anything different from stealing something that belongs to someone else, and then calling it as your own. There are a lot of researchers who tend to indulge in plagiarism, intentionally or unintentionally in their project.  It is not right, and one needs to be very careful. Here is why:

1. It is in contradiction with the law: This is very important to know, if you are not aware that by getting into plagiarism of content you are pushing yourself on the other side of the law. The law does not permit to use someone else’s content as your own. If you happen to copy work for which the writer has a copyright, you are eligible to be dragged to court and maybe even pushed into paying a hefty amount for stealing someone else’s work, and calling it as your own.
2. It is against ethics: It is ethically not right to use others content in your name. When you are tempted to do that, first, you must ask yourself, if someone else would do it to you, how would you feel? Your principles and value system would stop you from doing an act that is degrading.
3. You aren’t making any new contribution: When you create something new for your dissertation, you are enriching your own knowledge and at the same time contributing constructively in the academia. When you pick up something and show as your own, there isn’t any new knowledge created and it isn’t any different from cheating. Perhaps, just a refined form of cheating.
4. You may lose your degree: Your supervisor or evaluating committee may find out about the copied content. Most of the time, an expert eye can easily distinguish between original and unoriginal content. In case they decide to take a stringent action, you may end up losing your degree. A risk, surely not worth taking.