I’m a bad writer but so many people have bad taste that I manage to get away with it most of the time. I like to think that I have original thoughts but more than half of what I perceive to be original is really imitation. Adam was the worlds only non plagiarist . Most of the human race goes through life without an original thought. After much consideration I’ve come to believe that imitation is the sincerest form of plagiarism

There are three essential rules for blogging but nobody knows what they really are. They say add fresh original content – meaning check the news, paraphrase it and post it quickly. They say speak in your own voice, meaning don’t be pedantic, boring or stupid. They say don’t plagiarise someone else’s content, meaning give credit where credit is due and get a trackback if possible.

As for every concept there is a hard edged black and white silhouette point of view and a fuzzy unfocused stripes of grey with dots of colour point of view. The first point of view regarding plagiarism is easy to see and to understand . Don’t right click, select all and copy and then paste it into a new document and sign your own name to it.

The second point of view examining plagiarism is, as always, a somewhat messy and hypocritic, overly moralistic, clichéd and plagiarised repetition of an old argument between the angels conscience and the devil’s advocate. It involves the law. If the law says you own it then you do. If it falls outside the law then finders can be keepers.

You can only practice plagiarism successfully if you’re already famous. If you are then most people will assume that even if some dead dude in the 17th century said it first, you said it better. An example being John Lennon’s line from a song that went “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans”. It is a quote, as were many Beatles lyrics, and as Procol Harum said in another line from a song “We’re taking turns in trying to pass them on.”

The ratio of literacy to illiteracy is constant but nowadays the illiterates can write. Unfortunately they have also realized that writing is time consuming and a brain strain to come up with an original idea. To think is not enough, you must have an idea. They have found the best way to have a good idea is to read someone else’s good ideas. And discovered that some ideas grow better when transplanted.

In defence of their actions, it should be said that plagiarism is immoral but if you must do it use only the best of sources. Stealing from the moderns is considered plagiarism, while stealing from the ancients is erudition. To steal from one modern writer is plagiarism but to steal from many different modern writers is called research.

As one sarcastic teacher commented on the essay of one of his students “Your manuscript is both good and original, unfortunately the part that is good is not original and the part that is original is not good…”

Originality is often only undetected plagiarism or the art of concealing your source. That which we think is original is based on the gist of what we no longer specifically remember. Even our thoughts are based on other people’s thoughts – it’s called education. If you discarded everything you owe to others there would be nothing left.

It is difficult to think of new things to write about. Not because new things don’t appear but because everything is related to something in the past. Nothing is new except the way it’s arranged. Between the rock and the water, there is a point of view where plagiarism can be viewed that is not so broad minded that your brains fall out nor so narrow minded that your ears touch each other .

If you do have an article, such as PLR, that you want to rewrite as an original then make an attempt to put 50% of it “in your own words” ( don’t cheat by looking at the original, take it all from the top of your head). Taking out a comma and adding a full stop doesn’t count. If you do find an article that consummately describes it’s topic, don’t just totally rip it off. Consider merely linking to it with a quote from it, rather than stealing it.

We call it plagiarism (for modern writers) because modern writers still have feelings, not like those dead dudes. They also have legal rights. Such as the right to sell their own copy and give or withold permission to use it.

If you want to see if your articles have been plagiarised or whether a PLR is already rife online you can type in the url of your article at http://www.copyscape.com/ and they’ll tell you. You’ll also find much information there on protecting yourself from word theft and advice about what to do if you discover you are a victim of it.

Freelance writers have the freedom to starve anywhere. Leave them their copyright, find your generosity and credit them with their work. Link to them. You will get a link back as a reward. Unless you are famous of course. Then you can do as you please and the wages of sin are royalties. If you have any comments please write them on the back of a cheque.

PS. Over 50% of this article is recycled “quotes” from “Caustic Quotes” by Helen Ingram.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form, or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the publisher.

Even though lots of dead dudes said these things first and the publisher has given them no credit or mention because they haven’t a clue who they were.

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This entry was posted on Friday, April 4th, 2008 at 4:19 pm and is filed under How Do I Start Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.