Plagiarism is when a person uses someone else’s written words or ideas without citing the source of origin, consequently passing the work off as their own. When you spend time and effort to produce something original and authentic, you would not want anyone else claiming it as their own. As a writer, you must respect the work of other writers and always give credit where it is due. Avoiding writing plagiarised content is one of the primary ethics that all writers must adhere to regardless of the field they are involved in, whether you’re writing for blogs, academic projects, social media, advertisements, or others.
Plagiarism and Taking Reference: The Difference
As content writers, we may not always have in-depth knowledge of the topic we are requested to write on. It is a profession that involves a lot of research from which writers deduce the required information and mould it according to their interpretations and the needs of the client. This is alright because you are taking references from already existing sources and then creating something new. But plagiarism is different; it’s when you steal another writer’s work and present it as your original piece. Plagiarism does take place unintentionally due to the negligence of the writer, either because the writer forgets to cite or did not know they needed to. But you do need to know because this is crucial when it comes to writing.
Harm Caused to the Company and Yourself
Plagiarising content can prove to be dangerous, especially when you are in the business of writing professionally. Plagiarism can have serious legal repercussions, and unintentional plagiarism is not excusable. The company you work for will lose credibility and probably pay heavy fines, and you will face the same consequences if you are a freelance writer. This also extends to students and universities. If your work is being published online, then Google may potentially blacklist your website. Needless to say, all of this poses high chances of you getting fired, expelled, or losing clients, whichever applies to your situation. Plagiarising content also harms your ability to germinate original and novel ideas.
How to Avoid Plagiarism?
To avoid plagiarism, it is advisable to run your content through plagiarism checkers that are available online such as Grammarly, SmallSeoTools, DupliChecker, Copyscape, Turnitin, 1Test, etc. But there are times when you need to mention someone else’s work, most commonly in academia. To avoid plagiarism, do the simplest thing: cite. Citations not only give credit to the original author but also point the reader towards the exact source of the content. Plagiarism is not restricted to writers alone; images are also commonly plagiarised. This sort of usage is often not considered plagiarism because it is so commonly done and much harder to detect than written content. When the copyrights of a photograph or graphics element are designated, or the owner has requested to use it without permission, then you must make sure to do the needful by including the source link or by citing.
