Blogging is a form of content marketing for individuals and businesses. Primarily, blogs are utilised for sharing ideas, knowledge, and leadership on specific subjects. For many, blogs have allowed hobbies to transform into full-time careers, while blogs have led to improved Google rankings and search impressions for businesses.
When the internet is full of content, a concern for many bloggers and website owners is plagiarism. Since millions of people write content online at any given time, plagiarism is becoming ever-present and the need to avoid it is ever more critical for content creators.
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What is plagiarism?
In short, plagiarism is showcasing someone else’s work as your own. It is illegal and can mean you’re liable for copyright infringement. There are different kinds of plagiarism online, which include:
- Direct Plagiarism
- Mosaic Plagiarism
- Accidental plagiarism
- Self-plagiarism
- Paraphrasing plagiarism
Whether content has been scraped from existing works of others, or someone has fed someone else’s ideas into their writing, it’s still plagiarism. Sometimes, plagiarism can be accidental, but either way, it’s essential to aim for unique ideas when creating content for blogs.
Let’s discuss some of the key ways you can avoid plagiarism in blogging.
Check your anti-plagiarism tools:
It’s always best to check over your final piece of content before publishing it, but there are many online tools you can use rather than doing it manually. For example, online tools like Copyleaks plagiarism checker scan your content against multiple online resources and provide a percentage of how much your writing is considered duplicated or plagiarised. They are very clever pieces of software and should be utilised for your work.
Research, research, and more research:
Read more than one piece of content. When writing content, it is advised to conduct more comprehensive reading and research around the topics to help you understand the subject more. Not only will this help you feel more confident about the writing, but it will inspire your own ideas and thought-led pieces of writing, which will encourage originality. If you take inspiration from one piece, you’re at risk of mimicking the structure, ideas, and other identifiable aspects.
Be original with your ideas and writing:
Use wider reading and research as a form of inspiration, but consider your original approach to discussing the topic. Don’t be afraid to assert your ideas and opinions in your writing. If anything, it will make your content fresh and more appealing against existing work online.
Cite your resources:
If you use ideas and information from elsewhere online in your blog, be sure to keep a note of this. Whether you reference an idea, a statistic or a piece of research, be sure to include attribute a link or a citation list in your work. This is particularly important in academic writing among students. Often when students conduct their research as part of their studies, there will be times when they will discuss the research of others in their thesis, often quoting ideas and results. This is an excellent example of when citations are crucial to avoiding plagiarism.
Be patient:
Please don’t rush your writing. Take enough time to plan the writing process. This will provide you with enough time to form your ideas before you begin and enough time for checking over your writing once you’re finished.