Not like plagiarism is any new term for us to visit. It’s been around us now and we have been taking this as a bait to capture success. Content plagiarism has become much more common with expanding platforms for digital marketing and today it almost looks like it is inevitable. But well, just know it sure isn’t.
Is inspiring from other work bad?
Well, there is no way one can come up with all that has to written. Scripting content usually involves lot of back work for research. Digital marketing looks at explicitly displaying facts, ideas, and much more which means looking around to get them is natural.
Researching your article base is not considered plagiarism. But then a good research on a common topic would usually land you in reading almost everything you think could be added by you, meaning you have abundance of content floating already that causing you to have almost nothing your own to say. This along with working under close time constraints make writers pick the easiest way out – Plagiarism.
The path looks easy and gives a what is expected out of a writer. So what seems to be the problem?
For starters, it ruins a person’s professional image and ofcourse it reflects badly on a brand that lets such content rest on their pages to represent them. It answers poorly on the effort and looks unjust for the original writer. And from a business perspective Google hates dealing with such copycats causing cut downs on the traffic they divert to you.
How to say no ?
Given sometimes most of what you intend to say has already been said, practise the citing technique. It helps establish that your work is inspired from another author and not copied and it also helps highlight your view, even if it might seem insignificant otherwise.
Space out your content preparation within the period available and dedicate it to have a strong research from multiple sources. Sometimes one work might seem to give away everything that you may need. But if you stop their then it isn’t research. Rest your work and take time to review it alongside your references to make sure it doesn’t seem like just a copy work.
Quote the person or blog when you find the need to use the content without any change. And of course, the least you can do if not quote is to rephrase to put emphasis on being inspired by the work but not wanting to plagiarise. With most of web content running with plagiarism it looks like a pressure one could succumb to. But, brands need to carefully examine the contentproduce for the customers, for if it isn’t unique your customers are going the feel the same about you too.