Blog

A Quick Guide to Plagiarism Prevention

Technological advancement is a boon for some and a nightmare for others. The misuse of data, the internet, and information has shaken people from the very core. Availability of unlimited data, access to free and unmonitored internet, and open sources enriched with various contents has encouraged a particular group of people to use it to their advantage. So, here is a quick to plagiarism prevention & techniques.

It has created quite a few situations, leading to piracy, plagiarism and copyright infringement, and other problems. All these different words refer to the same act of creating copied content. Thus the consequence for all these acts is also precisely the same. Plagiarism refers to the act of creating duplicate content using a writer or content creator’s original ideas.

Plagiarism is an example of exploiting the original creators who are clueless about this situation because their content belongs to an open-source and has the protection of no sort to indicate their sole right over the content.

Experts worldwide have come up with some creative solutions for the rising cases of plagiarism in every field. The issue is no doubt threatening, but the results of these solutions are also overwhelming. These solutions include anti-plagiarism tools and software available online. They have been quite useful for measuring the extent of copy in a given content.

Why People Indulge in Plagiarizing?

Before one gets to the discussion on the techniques of plagiarism prevention, one has to understand why people indulge in such an act first hand and then move towards the possible solutions:

  • People adapt to plagiarism as an easy alternative to reading, researching, fact-finding, and collecting information, the process that is irreplaceable for creating quality content. 
  • In various surveys that have been conducted to identify many probable reasons for creating duplicate content, students have often admitted that they have copied content to complete a project or assignment since they wanted to avoid failing the deadline.
  • Content creation, let alone any SEO content, is an uphill task that demands creative exploration of the writers. Lack of creative ideas may lead the writers to adopt unfair means to complete the task at hand.
  • It often happens that people undertake a task with much enthusiasm, but that fades away after sometimes. It might be another reason for creating plagiarized content.
  • Brands and organizations sometimes use good quality user-generated content for promoting their brand and services. Following the trend, some writers use other writer’s ideas to avail favors from the brands.

People often misunderstand summarizing and paraphrasing as being safe options for avoiding plagiarism. However, contrary to popular belief, content created with both techniques can also be easily detected if search engines check for plagiarism.

Tips for Prevention of Plagiarism

Here are some useful tips that will help a writer or a content creator plagiarize a text, content, or blog.

Focus on Creating Rather Than Copying:

Writing is an art that allows the writers to express their thoughts, ideas, and views on a particular topic. Thus, whether it is a product review, personal blog, travelogue, or any other form of sharing information with the target audience, original ideas in the content are always appreciated by the readers.

Website content must guide the readers to make purchase decisions, provide honest reviews, and provide genuine and authentic information.  Duplicate content is merely a copy of someone else’s work.

Content creators are liable to their audience to maintain authenticity and transparency. Content creators must gather information, read, and learn about the topic they are dealing with to write their latest content. 

Copyright for Content Protection:

Websites are responsible for protecting their original content that has been published on the website and, in turn, safeguarding the content creators. The easy way to control the manhandling of data is by applying copyright over content. Both the websites and creators can do that.

It is not uncommon for content creators to seek ideas from outside sources. However, not acknowledging those ideas is what contributes to committing plagiarism.

To safely use other author’s exact words, use quotation marks to indicate that the words do not belong to one originally. Instead, one is only using those words to support their perspective or prove their point. 

Citing Sources:

According to APA and MLA format, there are subtle aspects of writing style to avoid plagiarism; source citing is one. Websites, research papers, thesis, and all the other things have a list of references at the end of the written piece.

Citation is the process of acknowledging the source site or the original author’s contribution to creating the paper, blog, article, or content of another kind. It provides the author with the recognition and credit they deserve and encourages the readers to read further.

Use of Plagiarism Checker:

Website ranking depends on the quality of the content. Search engines penalize copied content by manipulating the search result of the users. Low-quality content can damage the website’s right name and misguide the viewers even if it has powerful off-page SEO techniques.

Content creators often opt for using synonyms, making slight alterations, or summarizing from source site to maintain SEO rankings. The importance of plagiarism checkers lies in the fact that all these attempts do not pass the online plagiarism checker tools. 

One of the many boons of technology is the latest plagiarism checker software. These user-friendly online tools can detect plagiarism by comparing the uploaded text with other ones. It generates a result based on similarities between contents.   

Do Not Lose Website Ranking Due to Plagiarism:

The content is an integral part of any website, being a tool for improving website ranking, which directly affects the brand reputation and sales. The better quality of the content, the better is the on-page SEO of the website.

Thus website content should be free of plagiarism, wholesome, and informative. Only then marketers will gain from the investment they made for the digital promotion of their brand.

Find out what's in your copy.