Consequences of plagiarism

With every kind of action comes a variety of outcomes. With positive actions, those consequences might prove that the action was worth it, with contrary actions, such as plagiarism, those consequences can be dire and tremendously harmful. To further enlighten people about the adverse effects of plagiarism, we explain the most common consequences of plagiarism.

Call to legal action

If you happen to infringe copyrighted material, steal someone’s trademark or “piggy-back” off of others’ success in the academic field, do not be surprised to see them take legal action against you. Most of the time, copyright violations are subject to severe penalties and fines, sometimes exceeding six or seven digits. However, original authors will likely try to contact you directly beforehand and politely ask to disassociate yourself from that work, issue a public apology or something of sorts. Legal action is burdensome to handle and deal with; thus it is in your best interest to do everything to avoid it. Using plagiarism checkers is one of the best ways to do so.

Smaller grades

For students writing essays or completing regular written assignments, plagiarism can result in a failed and non-satisfactory grade or minus some points from the final total. However, if you catch the attention of a lecturer or professor, they are going to have to file a report (most of the time), thus giving you a strike and then keeping you under their radar for the rest of the semester.

Suspension

Severe or repetitive instances of plagiarism could call for more severe responses from the school or university. Suspension can be a direct result of a students’ unwillingness to stop plagiarising, or if they decided to plagiarise coursework, thesis or purposefully bought papers from outside sources online.

Expulsion

As one of the most severe punishments, a student can have, expulsion for plagiarism does happen quite a lot. With very rare exceptions, you are likely to get expelled if you plagiarise coursework, thesis and/or other tasks that account a lot on your final grade. Expulsion also might happen if you spread plagiarised content, meaning that you are writing those types of essays, thesis, coursework for other students in the community. Once in a blue moon will a university will review your case and maybe take it lightly. Almost every instance ends in severe punishment with little hesitation from the expulsion board.

Stripping of all academic honours and disassociation from the academic institution

This almost always goes hand in hand with expulsion. If you are an alumnus of a university and are found to be guilty of plagiarism later on down the road, the school will not hesitate one bit to revoke your academic honours. MD’s are left empty-handed, and people lose BA’s degrees quicker than you could blink. In universities, plagiarising does not pay off. With more of them integrating plagiarism checking systems almost every day, trying to get by gets enormously tricky.

Refunds

If you are a content writer and cut corners using copy-paste techniques or just knock off someone else’s work, prepare to issue a lot of refunds.

Firing

When working for a publisher, magazine or any company directly in contact with content writing or content management, plagiarism is not an option. When your boss or someone responsible for your department finds out about something related to plagiarism, they will not be lenient. Plagiarism is not a laughing matter; the lawsuits and lousy SEO it can bring threatens businesses.

Thus it is always better to check twice, three times or even more, just to avoid the negative consequences which come with plagiarism.