Resources on Avoiding Plagiarism
Department of Political Science
Concordia University

II. Why Not to Plagiarize
B. Why it Matters (Apart from Punishment)

• Intellectual honesty: It's dishonest to use someone else's words without acknowledgment. 
• To develop your own thinking: Writing is important part of thought process. If you don't do your own writing, you're not thinking for yourself. 
• Expressing an idea in your own words shows understanding. 
• Fairness to other students, who do their own work.
• Fairness to authors to whom you should give credit for their work.
• Catching plagiarism requires significant time and effort on the part of professors and TAs. It's not fair to them.