By Dinesh Perera
Just type the word ‘Plagiarism’ on a Microsoft word document and ‘look up’ the definition. Apparently it means ‘the process of copying another person’s idea or written work and claiming it as original’. Now wait a minute. Does copying that definition straight off ‘Word’ constitute plagiarism? Goodness! Did I just plagiarise an article on plagiarism? Hope not, but maybe you are unsure yourself as to what is right, what is wrong and how to construct an article while researching on the internet. So let’s take some time out and figure out what this really means. And also look at how it applies to you and I, working on content matter for the Internet.
The first step here is to perhaps understand why this is wrong. Imagine yourself, crafting an article from scratch. Think of the hours of research that goes into it and putting an article together. You of all people know that writing an article from scratch is not as easy as it sounds. Now think of countless other people out there ripping off parts of your original creation. Nicking a line from here and copying a phrase from there and putting together an article that is not perfect but definitely good enough. Now consider the fact that, they are posing off as original authors of the said articles and making money off your hard work, time and skills. Preposterous eh? Well if that’s what you feel then you certainly wouldn’t do something like that now would you? Would you?
Well you would. The internet is not for saints and wholesale nicking of content was not deemed a sin when Moses put that “big list of don’ts” together. While plagiarism is not felt as a sin and definitely not looked upon as a crime in Sri Lanka, (although according to the U.S. Customer Seller Agreement Law [upon which Writum is legally bound] plagiarism, is in fact, considered as copyright infringement and therefore, a CRIME! - one that can get you fired, without room for a second chance), you may feel that there is no immediate threat of standing in front of hell’s gate for unauthorised copying from an article crafted by a hardworking and honest content writer. However, the downside is the humiliation that arises when you have been sussed out. Humiliation is always worse than guilt, especially if you call yourself a writer and step out into society claiming to be one of the learned, literary types. Imagine the shame when they figure out that you are a learned and literary cheat!
Okay, so content writing is nowhere near as prestigious as writing a novel or book like the funny ‘Jam Fruit Tree’ or the gorgeous ‘God of Small Things’ but it is still deemed to be original. And not everyone out there can sit at a computer console, do research and craft original articles that are actually intelligent and interesting. That takes talent and skills too. So if you are a content writer, you need to be proud of it and be sincerely proud of the work you do and you need to do it ethically and correctly. That unfortunately has no space for the word ‘Plagiarism’.
Now the old school content writers are bound by old school traditions. Yes in the internet age where content writing has a long and illustrious history of not more than 1o years give or take a few, we already have a code of conduct and plagiarism is the worst thing you could do. But these new types think that they can get away with it. How very untrue!
Just do a ‘Google Search’ on ‘plagiarism checker’ or ‘plagiarism tracker’ and look at the number of options available for content management companies to track who amongst their contributors are getting nasty with their work. And most of these solutions are available for free! So if you don’t give a damn about ethics and guilt and think it’s not too bad a sin to plagiarise then the very Internet you plagiarise offers the very tools to keep you in check or kick you out. And further, content management companies rely on original articles to keep their businesses going; the very material that keeps hundreds and thousands of content writers making an honest living in this day and age. If your laziness and lack of respect for what you do finds its way to the internet it could jeopardise the functioning of the content managing company you are attached to and the hundreds of people relying on that company’s existence. So you seriously do need to be careful and concerned and give originality your best shot.
So you ask what options are there to write an article without cheating? Well the answer is very simple: GRASP IT – WRITE IT.
- Most content writing restricts you to 400 or 600 words per article.
- Read a few related articles on the internet.
- Then think of a suitable introduction you can spin for at least one third of the article.
- Then look at fleshing out the body copy with interesting facts, figures, ideas, opinions and quotations.
- Finally end it all up with a hard hitting finish.
To do this you need to understand each article on its’ own. Once you have been through a few related articles you will know what you should be writing about and for a good content writer, the article structuring plan will be very clear and the words will just keep flowing.
And as a final solution, for those times you are really stuck, consider ‘paraphrasing’. By this we mean look at how a certain author has expressed facts and opinions in his or her article piece. Get the gist of it and put your own spin on it. This is perfectly allowed and it is a solution even the best old school content writers use without the slightest feel of guilt or trepidation.
Happy writing everyone!
