If you don’t want to post the whole paper for help, just pick out a specific part that’s bothering you.

It is plagiarism because you took the other person’s words and passed them off as your own. If your teacher checks Yahoo Answers, she’ll find your question and that answer. Don’t be surprised if she checks. Teachers are smart cookies. If that happens, you have to take your licks and accept the punishment she gives you for stealing.

Is this something that will get you taken to court, like happens to some folks if they steal the lyrics from a song or try to pass off one of Hemingway’s novels as their own? Probably not. It isn’t likely the person who answered your question will sue your for using the answer. After all, your question was in the section Homework Help, so the person knows you were doing homework.

If legally, you won’t get hammered this time, morally and ethically what you did was wrong. Whether you get caught or not, you know it was wrong. The proper way to use that answer was to read it, understand it, and say it in your own words when you wrote your paper.

So, if you ask Yahoo Answers for help another time, do it the right way, okay?

You should try to get the general idea from what that person wrote and then rewrite it yourself. Don’t just change a few words.

Understand what they are saying and then put it in your own words.