Why, why, why….are you plagarizing?

Date July 30, 2007

I know it gets tough when you freelance write. I know some weeks you are feasting in work and trying to outsource to your cat so you can get it all done. And I know the lean weeks where you’re e-mailing distant acquaintances for leads happen too.

But why are you plagarizing?

I just had a sad incident with someone that I thought that I knew well in the writing circles. I was just about to post some articles they (bad grammar I know…but I’m hiding the gender) had written for me months ago when I was still pregnant. They did me a huge favor, and I paid them well for it.

I just bought some premium credits at Copyscape (only .05 per search) and ran the articles through. They were verbatim from Ezine articles. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The writer hadn’t even tried to make them appear differently.

I talk to a lot of marketers who have been burned by writers and are, understandably, wary of outsourcing. Now I know why they are scared!

If you need more time, ask for it. I guarantee your client may not be happy about the deadline change…but they will certainly be happier than they would if they received copied articles. When you plagarize, you’re not only ruining your own reputation, you’re ruining it for other writers as well.

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Category Posted in Resources, Web Writing Basics

2 Responses to “Why, why, why….are you plagarizing?”

  1. Tanya Davis (1 comments.) said:

    August 20th, 2007 at 12:34 pm

    Hey Courtney,

    I feel your pain. Plagiarism seems to be getting more common, I guess because it is so easy.

    I also just heard that for work to pass copyscape it has to be 70% different than the work in question. That’s a lot of difference!

    Nice site,

    Tanya

  2. Web Writing Info » Avoid being scammed…. said:

    August 30th, 2007 at 6:31 pm

    […] a lot of writers to walk away from writing for the Internet Marketing crowd. But as I posted here, the problem is far from one […]

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