ChanKelwin.com

When you write for a column, blog or other publications, the one thing that you should be afraid of is being accused of plagiarism. I am not an expert in this field so let’s consult wikipedia on the meaning of plagiarism.

Plagiarism is the practice of claiming, or implying, original authorship of (or incorporating material from) someone else’s written or creative work, in whole or in part, into one’s own without adequate acknowledgement.

From what I understand, plagiarism is when you copied part or the whole work of another person and make them look as if yours. Even if one paragraph of your work was copied from another source without giving them credit, that is still plagiarism. I have seen a few cases where bloggers were accused of plagiarizing another’s work. If a person plagiarized and is caught with evidence, it could tarnish the reputation of the writer.

On the other hand, what happens if a person is accused of plagiarizing without solid evidence? Should the accuser apologize or be penalized in some ways when the accused is found innocent at the end due to lack of evidence?

I have been very careful when it comes to preventing/avoiding plagiarism. No one likes to have fingers pointing at them and being accused of plagiarism. In the past, I have wanted to write about certain gadgets but ended up abandoning the idea after realizing other “more popular bloggers” had already written about it. However, I realized that my “practice” is unsustainable because it is impossible to always write about things that no one has written before. I was then advised by another blogger that as long as I add my own “twist” and did not copy what others have written, I should be safe.

We appreciate your effort, however, we are unable to approve your post as the entire post has been copied and pasted from another source.

Despite my efforts, I received the message above last weekend and was accused of plagiarizing. The post I written was a sponsored post. It was rejected due to claims that the entire post was copied and pasted from another source. It is a 300+ words post and the only part where I copied anything from another source is part of a document that I clearly identified and quoted.

I sent a ticket to their support team yesterday and this problem is being addressed by them. I requested evidence on their claims that my entire post was copied and pasted. I am still waiting for a reply.

Questions:

• What do you think constitutes plagiarism?
• Do we need to ensure no one has written what we are about to write before writing them?
• If two (or more) people write about the same idea but express them differently, is it still plagiarism?

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