Blogging, Plagiarism and Writing Ethics

Plagiarizing refers to the act of stealing the ideas and written words of another, and passing it off as one's own idea or written work without giving proper credit to the original source or author.

Blogging has quickly become the hottest means of internet communication. Anyone can sign up at a blogging venue and write about anything that grabs their fancy. There are free blogs, and pay blogs, and there are blogging venues aimed at helping the blogger making a little extra money by incorporating Google Adsense.

While recently browsing posts, at one of these blogging venues which allows bloggers to sign up for Google Adsense as a means to generate a profit for their keyword writings, there seemed to be quite a few bloggers that were able to post non-stop, through out the day. Now, of course, most would love to be able to write something of substance every hour on the hour, but for so many writers this ability does not flow as easy; and they work hard at their craft. Therefore, seeing this obvious mastering of writing well-crafted blog entries might leave an onlooker feeling a bit of writing envy. How are these bloggers able to write, with such ease and quality, several posts in a row, in fact, within minutes of each other? Noting, that a good lot of these posts have the main objective of "shock value", which no doubt lures more visits, and more chances at having their Google Adsense links clicked. However, as much as envy seems to crop up, the fact that they seem to have this flow and knack for expressing themselves in words, left room for some wondering. Could some of these masterful bloggers be engaging in the act of plagiarism, or maybe they have hit the jackpot and found a site that offers free articles for their personal use?

There is a writing instrument out there known as Copyscape, which many writing for money sites and or those who seek freelanced articles will utilize to check for an articles authenticity. It is good for writers, especially those who do a lot of content writing, to get into the practice of checking things out using Copyscape, not with just works you find suspect, but your own writings as well. Checking your own work, you can see how popular your topics might be, and this will allow you to avoid common or redundant phrases which might be written on particular topic, and prevent you from writing the same exact wording.

So, back to this blogging venue, after being side tracked by reading a "shock value" post, and noticing this particular poster had ten posts within minutes of each other, it just seemed to demand a trip to Copyscape. Sure enough, every post this blogger entered was from somewhere else, sites offering free essays, free term paper sites, other blogs, and other websites in general. There was no effort made by this blogger to cite the original source. Most of the entries were on topics that are big draw-ins or create a big debate.

Any envy previously felt subsided quickly. This poster had copied and pasted whole essays, giving no credit to original source, and passed it off as their own. Not only were they passing it off as their own, but they were using it with hopes of generating profits through the Google Adsense ads that appear on their blog - double theft.

It is apparent that there are just those who need to work the easy road. They feel that by constantly posting "shock value" articles, it will get them the fast money; and so what if they steal other's words to get that extra cent. With that said, more often than not, bloggers tend to maintain their writing ethics, and really do care about writing. Generally, they produce thoughtful and even helpful articles about topics they are passionate about, using this as the basis for drawing in a steady flow of readers. Some may not be the best writers but they have something worthwhile to contribute, and compromising their ethics or selling out is not an option. They use the blogging venue as a means to improve their writing skills, while communicating to those that happen upon their blog. Sure, some use their writing craft and ability to write a well-written piece containing profitable keywords, as a means to generate a little extra cash, but why should someone, who does not have the passion or the craft, get away with plagiarizing and making money from those stolen words? It does happen. At the end of the day, when one shuts down their computer, it should be truly important to feel good and accomplished knowing you have done nothing to taint your skills, and that your ethics have stayed intact.