Plagiarism,
a word every blogger is familiar with but many doesn’t even know what
plagiarisms mean. It sounds like plaque and might also work as one for your
site if not taken care of. The best things about plagiarism are it is easily avoidable
and there are many tools that can help you to avoid it which we will discuss
later. For now, Plagiarism might affect the ranking of your site on every
search engine. It might also become the reason for permanently ban on your site
by search engines. That caught your eye but nothing to worry; we need to
understand what plagiarism is and then you can easily avoid it.
According
to the Oxford Dictionary, the definition for plagiarism is “the practice of
taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own”. There
are many other definitions of plagiarism which might say other things too but
the most common plagiarism meaning will be when you try to copy someone’s ideas
or work and call it your own, that is plagiarism. It can be termed as an online
fraud too because both stealing and lying about it involves in plagiarism.
The
representation of someone else’s hard work, dedication, ideas, expressions and
everything they put into it as your own is morally ill but it happens. A
blogger might be doing so much to attract an audience to their site while others
might just be stealing their work and getting the audience to their site
without even doing any work. It is like copying your friend’s notebook in a
test and placing your notebook above theirs so that when the teacher checks the
notebooks, your friend will look like the one who cheated.
Now,
many people think plagiarism as borrowing or copying someone else’s ideas or
work but these words (borrowing, copying) takes away the seriousness of the
offense that is happening. For example, think of the greatest scientist “Mr.
Nikola Tesla”, he was the inventor of many such technologies that were stolen
by other scientists. He didn’t even get credit for those inventions even though
he put up all the hard work to design those. A classic case of plagiarism, he
got nothing for his hard work while others reap the fruits of the trees he has
sown.
Now, for instance, you might be thinking that you have no intention of using plagiarism on your website but it still might occur and to understand that let’s understand different types of plagiarism.
Different types of plagiarism
The
plagiarism might be coined in so many different types as it has different
meanings in different fields. But the most
common types are listed
●
Direct plagiarism: It is word to
word copying of someone else’s work or a part of their work without even giving
them any credit or attribution. This is the worst case of plagiarism; it is
like stealing some one’s work and also ripping the credits which are due to
them. Just like the Nikola Tesla example, we have already discussed it. This is basically termed as online theft.
●
Self-plagiarism: It is like stealing
someone’s work or ideas and then re-writing them in your own words, claiming it
to be yours. For example, think of a student who copies homework from other
students and to avoid the teacher’s suspicion, he just re-phrases those lines.
The student who copies might trick their teacher but online, there are many
ways to find the plagiarism in your work.
●
Accidental plagiarism: It happens
when you unintentionally write something that someone else has already written.
You might come across this one very often because there is so much content
online and everything you write might already be available online. For example,
a food blogger might write a recipe thinking it is unique but someone might have
already tried and done it before them. So, that will be accidental plagiarism,
one might not be aware of the plagiarism they are doing but that doesn’t mean
it will not affect them.
So, these are the most common types of plagiarism and we need to avoid all types to get the best results possible. So let’s move on to how to avoid it.
How to avoid Plagiarism
One
of the best ways to avoid plagiarism is to avoid reading or thinking about
copying somebody else’s work. Yes, you need to read other’s work for research
as no one knows everything but read it in a way to get an idea about the same
not literally copying their work. It might not be your fault as the human brain
works in mysterious ways and it will automatically grasp the idea which might
result in plagiarism later. So, if you read somebody’s work ad like something,
make sure to give them credit in your work. That way it won’t hurt them too.
The second thing you can do is find a topic that you have knowledge about, that way
you will be able to avoid any unintentional copying of content from others.
The third is to check for plagiarism in everything you write and willing to post online. For that you are in luck, there are many plagiarism checkers online, you can just type plagiarism check on your search engine and it will find you thousands of results and when you put your content for the check. These plagiarism detectors will provide you with a proper plagiarism report evaluating every aspect of your content. Now, you can easily remove plagiarism that way.
How plagiarism affect your content
As
we have already said at the start, Plagiarism works like a plaque. If one of
your much content has plagiarism and you ignore it. It may affect your whole
content, the search engines are very intelligent now and it isn’t the same as
your class teachers. It will definitely find out about it and ignore your
content in the search results even if you have done everything else alright.
Another thing might be copyright strikes on your content. If an author finds out
that you are copying their content and decides to file a copyright complaint
against you, it will affect your SEO. After too many strikes, the search
engines might also block you from their results. So, it will be better to give
credit to the author if you like something and wants it on your content.
Conclusion
Whether
it is intentional or unintentional plagiarism, it is categorized as digital
theft. So, one must avoid it at any cost. Now we have discussed all the major
aspects of plagiarism and you have understood it. So it is your duty to find
any plagiarism in your content and make it right or better avoid it.
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