what are the chances my teacher can recognise parts of my essay from last year

[happydayssz]

so i have the essay that someone who graduated last year gave me and its really good .. so i paraphrased it, deleted stuff and added my own but there are like 5 sentences (througouth the whole essay) that are just too beautiful to cut up and i know its wrong and stufff BUT reEALISTICALLY, will anyone notice

[Lumenoria]

I mean, I personally wouldn't risk it. If they catch you out on just one sentence, the credibility of your work as a whole is essentially in doubt. I've been wrongfully accused of stealing someone else's work when the WHOLE essay was my own, and it was not pretty. You definitely do not want to be in that position. I can't even imagine how it would've felt IF the work actually wasn't my own.

[Ellielh]

My english teacher has all the responses from previous years on her computer and if she sees someone with a similar viewpoint to a good essay last year she shares it with them so they can see what quotes they used (to expand on their own, not to copy). Thinking of that, she must have a really good memory because she finds the essay in under an hour. My point is, your teacher probably remembers the key concepts of essays and is probably more likely to remember an essay if they are good, as you say. Hence, you don't really want to take the risk in case she goes back through past essays to find examples to give to people. Change a few words or flip the sentence around so it's nearly the same, but not identical so it can't be called plagiarism. If she does manage to find it, just say you liked their idea and wanted to incorporate a similar concept.

[EEEEEEP]

so i have the essay that someone who graduated last year gave me and its really good .. so i paraphrased it, deleted stuff and added my own but there are like 5 sentences (througouth the whole essay) that are just too beautiful to cut up and i know its wrong and stufff BUT reEALISTICALLY, will anyone notice

That I cannot answer.  Nor will I attempt to. But I will say this.. you may not get caught 95% of the time, but for that 5% of the time that you do get caught, you will be punished heavily. I've seen people not get caught cheating, and I've also seen people basically lose a big lot of their mark (due to the whole assessment being given a big fat 0).

What you are doing is essentially plagiarism, the shame that comes from getting caught cheating is the worse. The teacher will also maybe doubt your future work.  I may need to remind you...
 

The consequences of cheating could be that:...
you receive zero marks for an assessment task
you have an HSC course withheld
you are deemed ineligible for the award of the HSC
your school imposes additional sanctions, eg withholding your reference.

[Poet]

Just to tack onto the end here, the point of writing an essay is to practice your ability to let words flow and create clear arguments. Using another person's essay, or basically copying your own from the year before, is not only risky in the probability that your teacher might notice, but it also has a detrimental impact on your ability to focus, concentrate and write arguments. This isn't going to help you later on.

I know you've paraphrased and added some of your own language, but why not try just writing it out yourself? If you've read through the other essay a couple of times, some of that beautiful phrasing will come naturally within your own writing.

[Aaron]

You also need to have an ability to write things yourself in an exam situation. Not taking advantage of multiple opportunities throughout the year to refine that ability only puts yourself at a disadvantage. Y'know, do what you want.. but you're playing with fire.

There's always that one teacher that can analyse things very well. Let's hope your teacher isn't that person. Teachers know the ability/capability of their students whether they show it or not.