5 Effective Ways to Protect Blog Posts From Plagiarism

 Writing a blog post requires many things, such as researching a topic, finding LSI keywords and finally, writing content. Depending on the author, this procedure can take one to two weeks. But it's not quite the challenging task of creating a blog post.

Instead, a difficult task is to check entire blog posts for plagiarism and remove plagiarism from them. Even if an author or blogger has used original ideas and words to create a blog post, checking the blog post content for plagiarism is still necessary.

That's why this guide will teach blog writers about (five) 5 ways to effectively protect blog posts from plagiarism.

So, follow this guide to the end to discover some interesting ways to prevent plagiarism in blog posts. But before getting to how to avoid plagiarism, let's start with the basics of plagiarism.

What Is Plagiarism?

Before moving on to the types and ways to prevent plagiarism, every blogger and writer must know the laws of plagiarism.

Because stealing money is a crime protected by law. It's the same with plagiarism. So, stealing information, thoughts, ideas, tables, pictures, illustrations, etc., comes under the umbrella of plagiarism.

So, when a blogger steals someone's work or an author steals someone's written text and represents that work or text as his own, he is committing plagiarism.

However, plagiarism can come in many shapes and forms. So, the concept of plagiarism is not as simple as it sounds.

That's why it's important to discuss types of plagiarism before moving on to (five) 5 ways to effectively protect blog posts from plagiarism.

Types of Plagiarism

Some experts say there are four types of plagiarism, while others say there are six. So, since this is such a comprehensive guide, let's cover the six types of plagiarism.

1. Complete Or Global Plagiarism

As the name suggests, a complete or global form of plagiarism is the act of copying someone else's entire work and representing it as their own.

For example, downloading a published research paper and changing the wording to publish it would fall under the full or global plagiarism criteria.

2. Paraphrasing Plagiarism

Paraphrasing refers to changing the words of a piece of text without affecting the original meaning. While this is an effective technique for avoiding plagiarism, paraphrasing something incorrectly or paraphrasing something without giving credit to the original author will fall under the criteria for paraphrasing plagiarism.

3. Verbatim Plagiarism

The name itself applies to a branch of plagiarism in which an author copies content word-for-word, letter-for-letter and line-for-line without acknowledging the original author.

Like the first two forms, this form also falls into the category of heavy plagiarism.

4. Mosaic or patchwork plagiarism

Mosaic or patchwork plagiarism is copying information from different sources and combining it to form something new without crediting the original author.

While it is difficult to catch mosaic or patchwork plagiarism, even if no plagiarism software can detect it, creating information that falls into this category will still constitute plagiarism.

5. Self-Plagiarism:

When an author uses part of his published material in a new article without citing the source, he is committing plagiarism himself.

Many writers do not know about self plagiarism, therefore this form of plagiarism is not as bad as the others. But reusing someone's work without citing the source is also plagiarism.

6. Accidental Plagiarism

As the name suggests, accidental plagiarism is a form of plagiarism in which an author forgets to cite the source or accidentally uses another person's words without acknowledging them.

Like self-plagiarism, accidental plagiarism is not a serious form of plagiarism. But writers must avoid it at all costs.

5 Effective Ways to Protect Blog Posts From Plagiarism

Effective Ways to Protect Blog Posts From Plagiarism

After discussing the concept of plagiarism in detail, now is the time to discuss various ways to avoid plagiarism in a blog post. So, without further delay, let's get to the tips.

1. Understand the Concept of Plagiarism:

The first effective way to protect against plagiarism in blog posts is not technique at all. Rather, it is an instruction to thoroughly understand the concept of plagiarism.

It's hard to avoid something if one doesn't know the concept thoroughly. Therefore, to remove or prevent plagiarism, content writers and bloggers need to understand the causes and solutions of plagiarism.

In this way, they can avoid situations that lead to plagiarism. Even if a blogger or content writer falls prey to any form of plagiarism, he or she can use the techniques from this guide to remove plagiarism.

2. Don't like to procrastinate

The second effective technique on how to write plagiarism-free articles is to develop the habit of starting early.

Before starting the procedure of writing articles or blog posts, a content writer must research the topic extensively. But an extensive research process is only possible if the content writer has enough time.

So, in order to have enough time, a content writer should start working on blog posts or articles earlier. This way, he will have all the time he needs to produce quality content

*** Pro Tip: It's normal for bloggers and writers to procrastinate when working on a topic. So, an effective way to deal with procrastination is to use the Pomodoro technique.

The pomodoro timer is a time management strategy that divides work time into 25 minute sessions followed by short 5 minute breaks ***

3. Don't Forget the Importance of Correct Paraphrasing

No matter what type of writing industry an author belongs to, paraphrasing is a universal technique for avoiding plagiarism.

Paraphrasing is using someone else's ideas or words by changing the words without affecting the original meaning.

But misparaphrasing something would amount to plagiarism. Therefore, it is important to learn the art of paraphrasing.

That's why bloggers and content writers can try the following guide to avoid plagiarism by paraphrasing their blog posts.

* Before moving on to paraphrasing, content writers should actually read the original content. Doing this will help them explain certain ideas more effectively.

* When paraphrasing, content writers should not focus on paraphrasing long content all at once. Instead, they have to work on each paraphrase individually.

* Content writers can change the voice of sentences to successfully paraphrase content. For example, the writer can change the passive sentence of a paragraph into an active sentence and vice versa.

* Another effective way to paraphrase a paragraph is to use a different starting point.

*Authors and bloggers should not rely entirely on synonym replacement techniques because changing synonyms is not a successful paraphrase.

Apart from all the paraphrasing techniques discussed above, writers and bloggers need to cite (original) sources of information because paraphrasing without citations also includes plagiarism.

4. Use Images And Other Forms Of Media With Appropriate Permissions

Most novice bloggers and content writers are only aware of the plagiarism that occurs from using someone else's words. But using media from other people's blogs without proper acknowledgment is copyright infringement, which is another form of plagiarism.

Media, such as images, videos, GIFs and infographics, is one of the most important parts of a blog post because it helps maintain readers' interest when they get bored reading. But using media from existing blog posts without proper attribution also counts as plagiarism. Therefore, bloggers and writers should avoid this.

Whether it's an image in an article or a featured image for a blog post, bloggers and content writers should always choose the original image. But if the original photo isn't available, bloggers and content writers can use royalty-free and stock images that are free to use and don't require attribution from websites like Pixabay, Pexels, or Unsplash.

Regarding infographics, bloggers and content writers should create original infographics with the help of tools like 'Canva,' 'Easel.ly,' 'Infogram' and 'Piktochart.' Infographics are an ideal way to convey information to users in an engaging way.

5. Use Your Own Ideas

The last tip for avoiding plagiarism is probably the most obvious tip from this guide because it refers to using an original idea.

Undoubtedly, every blogger and writer takes inspiration from somewhere. But taking inspiration doesn't mean copying information. The best way to avoid plagiarism when taking inspiration is to identify key points that other bloggers and writers may have missed.

In this way, if a blogger or writer can overcome those missing points, not only will he have original content, but the quality of the content will also be better than his counterparts.

However, according to expert bloggers and content writers, every writer should check their content for plagiarism even after using original ideas or words because sometimes, even experts can plagiarize by mistake. So, checking for plagiarism before finalizing any content is a good practice.

Check Plagiarism

Conclusion

Plagiarism is when a writer or blogger copies words and ideas from someone else's website and uses them in their work.

Nowadays, it is very easy to fall victim to plagiarism. Therefore, sometimes the author is not aware of it. Plagiarism is considered a significant violation of copyright laws, which can result in serious legal consequences.

Search engines will not only remove plagiarized blog posts but also penalize entire blogs. However, there are ways to remove plagiarism from a blog post before publishing it to ensure that readers won't see any claims of copyright infringement when they view the post on their favorite search engine.

That's why this guide contains five effective ways to protect blog posts from plagiarism. Thus, writers and bloggers can use the techniques discussed to prevent their blog posts from being penalized.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. How Can I Avoid Plagiarism On My Blog?

Bloggers and content writers can use the steps in the guide above to avoid plagiarism when writing content for their blog posts. However, before going into the steps, writers and bloggers must understand the concept of plagiarism.

How Can We Protect Against Plagiarism?

There are several ways to protect blog posts, articles or research papers from plagiarism. But using original ideas, words and media is most effective.

However, sometimes, it is necessary to use other people's words. In such cases, bloggers and content writers may use double-quote, paraphrase and reference-citation techniques to avoid plagiarism.

Are There Other Ways To Prevent Plagiarism?

Apart from the five techniques discussed above, using double quotes and citing references are two additional steps that anyone can use to avoid plagiarism.

Double quotes are necessary when an author wants to use the exact words of an existing blog post or article, whereas citing references is essential after double quotes and paraphrasing.

What Are The Five Steps To Avoiding Plagiarism?

Bloggers and content writers can use the five steps discussed above to avoid plagiarism in their blog posts.