Plagiarism, a piece of writing or a type of work that has been copied, is one of the biggest problems in schools. It’s easier to copy other people’s work than do the work ourselves. It’s also easy to get Math homework from anyone in school or a major essay in English from a friend, but that doesn’t make it right.

Plagiarism is not only a problem in Massachusetts; it is also a problem around many schools throughout the U.S and many other countries. It is so common that many people started to sell some of their work for money. 12th grader at Watertown High School named Ana Paula Gerhske said, “plagiarism is not a good because would you like it if someone took credit for your own work.” Now technology has improved so much that it would help people to try to stop copying other people’s work from online or somewhere else, like books, magazines, or other sources. Plagiarizing does not help people learn any materials in class, and if caught it will bring their grades down even more than just doing the work yourself.

Sondos Namous, a 12th grade student at Watertown High School, said, “It’s not your right to copy other people’s work.  Even if you have permission it’s still not right and you would not learn anything if you do!”

In the middle of 2012, there was a huge scandal at Harvard University. Harvard University is the type of school where people would not even think about plagiarizing on an essay or even a test because it is one of the top colleges in the country and also of the honor code they have, but that is not the case. According to Richard Perez-Pena, a journalist for The New York Times, an assistant professor named Matthew Platt who teaches Government at Harvard University discovered while grading a take home test, saw a the same mistake in the same spot on few of the test. Over 120 Harvard undergraduates students were caught cheating on this test. It shows that even a high institution like Harvard University is facing this type of problem.

Schools are trying hard to stop this problem by making students sign an agreement that states that if you plagiarize in any of your work there would be big consequences. Like getting a zero on your test or a paper, suspended from school, or even expulsion. Plagiarism is not right and the only way we can stop this problem is by taking our time and do the work yourself.