Is Someone Stealing Your Work? Plagiarism Runs Rampant

Plagiarism is one of those hard-to-define concepts. But plagiarism is a concept every new or seasoned writer must be mindful of during every step of building a successful writing career.

Try this analogy: You are driving down the road. At a traffic light you spot a house with the most incredible array of rose bushes you've ever seen. You pull into the person's driveway, get shovels and such out of your trunk, proceed to dig up the beautiful bushes and take them home to replant in your yard.

You've never seen roses like these. You have to have them. Anyone would understand. Besides, now they are in your yard, and you've made them look better than they ever did in the original spot, so it's okay.

No? Why not?

When it comes to writing, specifically plagiarism, people don't seem to have clear-cut lines of right and wrong. But getting dirty is getting dirty, whether it be in digging up rose bushes or in cutting and pasting passages of another writer's work. It's just as dirty, and it's just as wrong.

As a writer, particularly one new to the field, it's tough, but you cannot say things the exact same way another writer does, or you are a plagiarist. It's also why being a good writer is so tough. The object is to say things in a way other writers don't. It's also the joy of it all. Otherwise, you're just a hack, churning out ideas with the right buzz words that will be picked up for online ads.

Traditional print outlets have policed a writer's work so it wouldn't slip into print should plagiarism be discovered in the work. That slip would cause the publication money. Moreover, the writer's long-term print career would be in peril. Print writers finished a feature, then faced the scrutiny of a team of editors, proofers and fact checkers. A writer was asked to supply phone numbers and information for anyone interviewed and evidence on every fact submitted. It was a pain, the bane of a writer's existence. But it worked and made the publication better. It made the writer better.

Also traditionally, those who planned a career in writing, particularly journalism, learned about ethics and canons of journalism. That's changed as new avenues have opened up for writers.

Enter online publishing. The online world is devoid of that training. Anyone can be a writer---which is both good and bad. While it has opened the door for voices that may have never been heard, it's like releasing a child who has been raised in a cult out into the world with no training as an adult. There's a serious learning curve.

Online publishers, using the term loosely in reference to some organizations, haven't been as diligent which has made it profitable for ignorant or fraudulent writers to lift work from others and claim it as their own. Newbie writers are often told its okay to lift parts of another's article. They're told that by other online writers who have no background in the concept of plagiarism.

As the online writing world evolves, this is changing. Associated Content has its Forum section where seasoned writers, many from the print world, will share the knowledge. Likewise, the CMs will run the person's submission to see if it has significant "similar passages." That's a nice way of saying---to see if the writer has copied passages from someone else's writing. If duplications are found, the piece gets rejected. It keeps the site honest and safe for those who want to improve their writing.

Helium maintains a no-tolerance policy as well. When articles are listed, people, generally writers, rate one article against another. Plagiarism is often picked up at this level and flagged. If an article is found to contain verbatim song lyrics or passages, for example, a rater flags it, and the Helium staff will delete it.

Plagiarism is annoying at best and career damaging at worst. It has to be watched on several fronts:

The established or trained writer must be mindful.

-----When you see someone skirting plagiarism, and you are a seasoned writer, you must step in. No need to be unkind, mind you. Just explain. When I've sent notes to people who have reprinted my stuff without permission, I've been met with disbelief and then apologies.

-----Police your own work. You may trust your neighbors, but most people generally lock their front doors nonetheless. If you're a writer, you need to be proactive. Do a Google search on your name on a regular basis. Once a month, I find that someone has stolen an entire article (including my byline) and cut and pasted it into his blog. I'm still astounded by that. These are not the innocents. These are not newbies who need to learn the rules. These are people who are taking an entire body of my work for their own profit. They fit ads around my work and call it their own. Just as I would protect my home, as a writer, I am the first line of defense against plagiarism. The writer must protect his financial home.

Online sites that make money off of writers must establish no-tolerance policies. For those who don't, writers must take the lead and walk away.

The NEW writer has to make sure he doesn't lift parts of another's work. If you're writing something, using other writers' works as references, and you hit a block, you may automatically reach for another person's words to fill in what you can't. It's wrong. If it doesn't feel right, you can bet it isn't right.

Still, even the most educated get caught up in nuances of it all. George Harrison lost a lawsuit for the song My Sweet Lord. He had the best legal counsel, yet, when the writers of the song He's So Fine cried foul, the court agreed. They ruled it was the same song musically. George had the copyright. Even experts make mistakes.

Before you submit your article, keep these things in mind to avoid the problem:

---Facts. They're out there. Facts are public domain, and anyone may use them. If you quote statistics, however, you need to cite the source. Beyond the idea of stealing some researcher's work, you should cite the source simply because it backs up what you are saying. If I tell you 50 percent of writers plagiarize, it sounds good, but why should you believe me? If I cite the source, it adds credence. There's no shame in citing sources you've used. I've had bloggers cite me for a blog meant for friends. That way, people can refer back to my article and maybe get more information. That's what the information game is all about.

---Fair Use. You may use parts of a poem, book, etc. in several circumstances. First, if you are a reviewer, it's understood that you'll be pulling exact passages from the original writer. Fair Use also relates to an amount, and that's the slippery slope. In a 10-line poem, you may get away with quoting one line; in a book, a paragraph here and there is okay to go along with what you are writing about. I write about musicians and song lyrics all the time. I take snippets here and there. Snippet is a good word. When you NEED to use an exact passage, put it in quotes and give the source. If you need to use more, you need written permission from the writer.

---Structure. Think about cookbooks. Yes, recipes are tweaked, and secret ingredients get added by master chefs. Still, that classic chocolate chip cookie can't be beat, now can it? A huge part of copyright law involves "how" something is presented. Think charts, graphs, bulleted items, and how your written piece looks. It cannot mimic someone else's work.

Before you let a piece of your writing go out, don't just proofread it. Give a second and third pass to make sure the words you are trying to sell are, indeed, your own.