Picture Courtesy: hubpages.com There are many views and thoughts regarding what plagiarism is and why people plagiarize? People have different levels of knowledge and understanding power. They also have different levels of willpower. In my opinion, it depends on people’s perseverance and curiosity regarding their work. Plagiarism, in simple terms, is copying others’ ideas, articles, literature, assignments, papers etc. and claiming it to be one’s own. It is simply being dishonest towards oneself. Plagiarism affects both the parties, the plagiarizer and the person whose work is being plagiarized. Sometimes, it becomes hard to distinguish whose work is authentic. Often, the plagiarizer’s work is far better than that of the others’. Taking a reference to others’ ideas and creating something new is good but copying everything is termed as plagiarism. Plagiarism is considered as a punishable crime. Plagiarism happens in many places and cases. Many people copy others’ work as it needs less effort, less knowledge and less time. Plagiarism can be found among writers, teachers, students, politicians and speakers, film producers and so on. Writers generally use the same points and ideas previously written somewhere else without proper reference. Teachers and book writers copy the contents from other books and sources without changing the words and sentences and also with proper reference. Many students copy the assignments from other students or websites. Politicians and speakers also plagiarize in their speeches. Most of the Nepali movie stories are also copied from Bollywood and Hollywood. Plagiarism decreases the creative power, thinking power, and working skill of a person. It makes the person a parasite that develops the habit of being dependent towards other. Plagiarism is mostly found among students. Students generally have the habit of copying the assignment which was previously done by others. This might be due to lack of proper ideas and knowledge, lack of understanding relating to that assignment, lack of curiosity about assignments, lack of proper study materials or lack of time. If all the students had the same ability of understanding and were equally creative then plagiarism might not happen. They would do their assignment themselves. Although students know that copying from others is not a good practice, they still want to copy the assignments. At last, I want to say that give more effort, be curious and take a commitment while doing something. Ideas will come itself. Everyone has the capacity but the only difference is that how you approach your work. While doing any work one needs to take it as an opportunity and not as a burden. Another important thing is that one should be passionate about the work. If you are really committed towards your aim and if you are able to give more effort, you can do far better than others.