How to Write Plagiarism Free Content in 2023
What is plagiarism? How to Write Plagiarism Free Content
Content writing is one of the most important aspects of digital marketing and is estimated to be worth more than $400 billion industry. Creating high-quality content and tracking and measuring content ROI using technology has been a huge contributor to the digital marketing industry boom. Since you can measure the performance of content marketing, more and more businesses are investing in it. According to the market, there is going to be a continuous surge in growth in the coming years.
Since there is a constant need to create engaging content, there are many marketers who take advantage of already created content and claim it as theirs without any contribution. It is unethical and fraud to copy someone’s piece of work but it can also cost copyright infringement, penalties, lost revenue, the diminished reputation of your business. In this article, we will understand the concept of plagiarism, how to write a plagiarized-free article, and protect your business from any penalties.
Plagiarism means using someone’s words or ideas and label them as your own without crediting the main source. There is a pool of information available on the internet in just one click and you can find and copy any idea or information instantly. It is prevalent in the content marketing industry and easy to make Copywrite violations knowingly or unknowingly.
Plagiarism can be avoided by citing the sources properly, simply acknowledging borrowed material, and providing your audience with the correct information. In this article, we will learn about types of plagiarism, their consequences, and good practices to follow to avoid plagiarised content.
It is ok to look for information and be inspired by reading material written by others and reapply what works for you and your business. But it is not ok to plagiarise, you should make every effort to come up with your unique ideas and make them your own. Your writing can be inspired by others but no two pieces of information should be alike, that would be stealing.
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Types of plagiarism
Let’s understand various forms of plagiarism from copying an entire document to rewriting a piece of information, in the end, it is all plagiarism when you pass off someone else works as your own.
A survey of scientific researchers has produced a ranking of plagiarism types stating that paraphrasing is the one that is the most common form of plagiarism and complete plagiarism is considered to be the most serious offense. It is very important to understand all the various types of plagiarism and how they occur.
- Direct Plagiarism
Direct plagiarism occurs when someone copies a paragraph or text from another source, word for word, without a reference or citation, and passing it as their own. Sections of different sources are taken to form a piece of article or document. Full reference of the cited source must always be provided with a quotation mark and it should be apparent to the readers which part is your work and which section is borrowed with full reference.
- Mosaic plagiarism
This type of plagiarism is difficult to detect since you are copying a different piece of information together within its research and creating a patchwork of someone else’s words or ideas. Although the idea is not new, the result is a completely new piece of information.
- Complete Plagiarism
This is the most dishonest form of plagiarism where you take an entire article or study created by someone else and publishes it under your name. It is equivalent to direct stealing of someone’s work.
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- Paraphrasing plagiarism
This is the most common type of plagiarism and occurs when you use someone else writing and form a new piece of work with some minor changes in the sentences by altering a few words. The words differ but the concept and structure remain the same as plagiarism if you do not give due acknowledgment to the author whose work you are using. It is called paraphrasing.
- Source-based Plagiarism / Inaccurate citation
Not providing primary and all sources of citation or reference to the source that is misleading or does not exist are also considered plagiarism. Data fabrication and falsification are also forms of plagiarism and the consequences of these are huge especially in research-based studies.
- Self-plagiarism
Also known as auto-plagiarism, it occurs when an author reuses a significant section of his or her previous work without attribution. Since original work is expected from your readers, it is only fair to reference your work when reused. This type of plagiarism mostly occurs within published researchers.
What are the consequences of your content is plagiarized?
Plagiarism can negatively impact your writing career and the reputation of your business. you can lose your credibility, your work and can get fined to list a few. Let’s understand below what consequences a writer can face upon plagiarised content:
- Copyright violation
Copyright infringement is a serious violation and can have huge consequences. There are various copyright laws about the creative industry such as writing, music, photography, graphic design, games, websites, software, paintings, sculptures, and paintings. Most of these creators have the copyright of their work and any violation may include a fine or removal of the content from your website depending on the severity of the violation.
- SEO penalties
Google algorithm is smart and knows when the content is copied and will rank your site very low. Even if your content is good, if plagiarised, will fail to rank in search engines, SEO will drop resulting in low traffic and if reported by the original publisher your site can even be blacklisted. This is one of the worst consequences of copied content and you may not even know how it affected your site.
- Lost clients
If you work as a freelancer content writer or work for a digital marketing company, your unique writing style, and relevant content are the main contributors to your reputation. Plagiarised content will hamper your reputation and your clients will lose trust in you eventually affecting the business.
- Lost revenue
Less traffic and visitors to your site will ultimately lead to less business and lost revenue. Also, if you have already paid your writers for their services, they won’t give that money back to you and you will have to rewrite all of that plagiarised content yourself resulting in wasting time as well.
- Lost reputation
Every time you hire a copywriter for your business you are taking a risk because they will truly become the voice of your business. Finding a good content writer who knows the know-how of your business is difficult but crucial as your reputation is at stake. It is important to take a proactive measure to ensure that no plagiarised content is ever published.
How to avoid plagiarism
If you aspire to produce work of the highest quality, you must avoid copying content. You must learn to develop your voice and learn by accessing others’ work but draw your conclusions. It is an essential part of learning and growing in the writing process. The lucidity and quality of your writing will improve with time and practice. Honest independent writing is not only a practical skill learned but will also give credibility and authority to your work and demonstrates authenticity.
As a professional writer, it is your responsibility to maintain the reputation of the brand. As discussed above plagiarised content is not good for organic traffic and you could also breach a copyright violation which can lead to legal issues sometimes.
To make it clearer let’s understand below steps that can help you avoid plagiarism while writing for yourself or a brand and protect your reputation:
- Set clear policies and practices
As a business, you must have clear policies against plagiarism and ensure that the work is not copied from other sources. The more plagiarist gets away from copying someone’s work the more they will continue to do it. It will eventually harm your business reputation and result in lost clients and revenue. It is crucial to have a strong system and practices in place to set clear expectations with the writers and the quality of work expected.
- Train your writing team
You should always encourage your writing team to produce 100% authentic relatable content and provide them with required training as and when necessary. It can be challenging but it is a necessity to provide your audience with something different than what is already out there on the internet. This is the only way your readers will find value and worth in the piece of information provided by you. Always invest in good writers, know that you will get what you pay for.
- Take Time to create
Ensure that there is enough time to plan, create, and review an entire article writing procedure. From picking the right topic to write to reading about it and then drawing your conclusion requires sufficient time and research. Anything rushed will not give you a high-quality piece of information.
- Keep Track of Sources
One of the important aspects of writing is a lot of reading. When a writer writes he or she will read from various sources to gather the correct information and get inspiration. It is important to keep a track of all the referred sources in case you happen you use sections of them in your writing.
- Refer to More Than One Resource
Similar to the above point, writers must read from varied sources for a proper understanding of any topic. Writers constantly need to learn and adapt to steady growth. Keeping more than one reference will broaden your knowledge and understanding and help you in the learning process.
- Quote
As a writer, it is important that when you refer to a source or use someone else work, you must correctly quote it. Your audience should be aware of the content generated by you and the content borrowed. It is a good practice to quote the text and link back to the website from where the material is sourced or give credit to the source by including a citation in the text and the reference list. It helps with SEO and maintains a good reputation amongst your readers.
However, not everything needs to be cited. For example, Narender Modi is the Prime Minister of India, is a common knowledge that most people know and doesn’t require referencing.
- Reliable editors
Once the entire writing procedure is finished, it is time for editors to ensure that the written piece of information is of the highest quality. You can rely on technology to review your content but a reliable and capable editor will know if the piece is not original and will spot errors that an online checker may miss. A good editor can help you plan and revise material to make it easier for readers to understand. They verify all the sources cited in the material and fact-check everything.
- Plagiarism checker tools
After all the manual work is done, it is best to check your article with different content checker online tools also known as a plagiarism checker. It is the best way to ensure the content is original and is plagiarised-free. They will pick any duplicates and compare your writing to existing sources on the web.
Detecting plagiarism is not too difficult nowadays. There are many free and paid tools available online to help you find duplicity and snippet of copied text. Below is the list of few tools:
Paid:
- Scribbr – not free
- Quetext – with a free trial
- EasyBib – with a free trial
- PlagScan – with a free trial
- Program – not free
- Grammarly – not free
Unpaid:
- Small SEO Tools – Max. 1,000 words per check
- Copyleaks – 2,500 words p/m for free
- Search Engine Reports – Max. 1,000 words per check
- PaperRater – 10 checks per month
- Edubirdie
- Use technology
It is important to understand that not all plagiarism checkers are reliable. Some checkers detect only 1% and another might detect 50% plagiarism. The accuracy of plagiarism depends on database size; some checkers only compared the data existing on the web while others detect data from books, case studies, and other publications. Another factor in detecting plagiarism is the algorithm; most plagiarism checkers won’t detect plagiarism if the sentence structure is changed by rewording it and when using two different sources are combined.
- Monitor content after it is posted
Someone copying your hard work isn’t very flattering. It is important to keep a track of your hard-written content online since plagiarism goes both ways and your content can be stolen too. There are tools you can use to ensure that your work does not get stolen by plagiarists. If your business reputation is at stake you need to get the below-mentioned tools listed by SEMrush that you need to monitor before and after your content is posted:
- Unplug – This online plagiarism checker comes with a lot of additional features. You get a comprehensive scan with more sensitive filtering and you will be able to upload multiple documents in many different formats.
- Copysentry – It monitors the web for content stolen from your website and is a low-cost cut-and-paste solution that delivers better results than most free tools.
- SEMrush Position Tracking – It compares your website to competitors on a global scale by monitoring your keywords, you can make sure your competition is not stealing your content.
- IFTTT – “If This Then That” tool to create email alerts when your target keywords show up on other domains.
Final Takeaway
It is easy to fall into the trap of plagiarism because some parts of your content will always be similar to what other people have already written. The idea of collecting other people’s work and improvising it works and does not always under the radar by the plagiarism checker but it is bad business, if not illegal. Avoid copying content because it can get you an SEO penalty without even you realizing it.
The is the most important reason for plagiarism is the pressure to generate a variety of high-quality content with already flooded resources. It can be challenging for those who try to come up with original content with a unique perspective.
Writing with finesse is a skill that can only be mastered with a lot of practice. An original, fresh piece of information helps gain knowledge of the subject and makes the time spent reading it more valuable. Writers need to keep their reputation intact by carefully drafting a piece of information using different resources and citing them correctly.
You should prevent plagiarism while writing by coming up with your ideas and plan your writing structure. Writing an outline for your article will help you understand and balance your original ideas and the ones borrowed from other sources. You should take notes and keep all the information organized before you begin writing and when in doubt cite the source correctly. A good writer should also learn how to paraphrase properly, by not just changing the words but also changing the structure of the sentence without changing the meaning of the content. A good paraphrasing lets you fit in your original content smoothly making it highly engaging content for the audience.
Really A great Article….Thanks