Article writing is a great craft, one that is in high demand nowadays. It is mostly used as a means of content marketing and it is considered very important for SEO. However, in all these things, there is one important quality that needs to be present in the articles; uniqueness.
Uniqueness is the opposite of plagiarism. If your content has similar wording as another’s or it is discussing ideas and concepts presented by others without acknowledging them, then that is called plagiarism.
Plagiarism is heavily penalized by publishers and search engines. Publishers simply refuse to publish such content, and they can blacklist the author as well. Search engines reduce the ranking of the content that is copied or they outright remove the page it was hosted on from their index.
To avoid these outcomes, it is necessary for article writers to make their content unique. So, here are a few easy and effective methods for doing so.
1. Do Plentiful Research
Most people do not commit plagiarism knowingly. They unintentionally copy others while writing. So, how does that come about? The most common reason is that the writer does not have enough information about their topic.
This makes them prone to copying others.
The only way to deal with this is to have a lot of knowledge and understanding of the topic. For that, you need to research. Researching is the cornerstone of article writing. You cannot create something out of nothing, and the same goes for writing. You need to have some prior knowledge in order to write.
Some tips for researching are as follows:
• Read research papers about your topic. Research papers are the best source for learning new and comprehensive information about most topics. They provide enough background information that most people can understand them.
• Read books about your topics. Similar to research papers, books are able to provide a lot of comprehensive knowledge along with background information.
• Read articles and news columns about your topic.
By varying your sources and reading about your subject extensively, you can get a better understanding of it. With understanding comes the confidence that you can write about it, and with confidence, you do not unconsciously copy others.
2. Write in Your Own Style
Sometimes new writers fall into the habit of emulating the styles of other authors. This is a natural thing, and it is not really that bad. However, it does pose one problem; it can result in plagiarism i.e., non-unique articles.
So, the only way to deal with it is to ditch the styles of other authors and cultivate your own. Cultivating your personal writing style can be difficult or very easy it varies from person to person. But there are some steps you can take regardless of difficulty.
So, here’s what you can do:
• Always phrase things as you would, and not in the words of other people.
• Read more, and improve your vocabulary. This will give your more options and help you find your style.
• Do not stick to one tone. Try to create different voices that suit different situations. You wouldn’t use the same tone in a formal write-up as the one you used in a descriptive essay, now, would you?
• Draw from your own experiences (when the situation calls for it) to present your own unique perspective.
By practicing these things, you can ensure that your writing style will be distinct and unique.
3. Always Check Your Drafts for Plagiarism
Even if you do extensive research and create your own writing style, you can still accidentally commit plagiarism, thereby reducing the uniqueness of your write-up.
Accidental plagiarism can occur by chance, or by a mistake. In articles where you have to credit someone else because you used their work, a mistake in citation results in plagiarism. Sometimes, plagiarism simply occurs because you wrote something uncannily similar to someone else without even realizing it.
All these things count as plagiarism and they are penalized in the ways we mentioned at the start of this post. So, it is essential to check your work for plagiarism. There is only one real way of doing so, and that is to rely on online plagiarism checkers.
A free plagiarism checker with a large enough word count is ideal for checking articles. Articles aren’t that long nowadays thanks to the ever-decreasing human attention span. Typically, they range from 500-1,000 words. This is a number that most tools can accommodate easily.
By proofreading your work with a free plagiarism checker, you can get a report that shows you how much content is plagiarized. The parts that are plagiarized are also shown, so, you can use that information to deal with it. This will make your content unique.
4. Remove Any Detected Plagiarism from Your Work
Finding plagiarism in your content is one thing, and removing it is another. Removing plagiarism can be done in a few different ways depending on the type of plagiarism.
For any sort of copied content that has a proper source, it is customary to cite it. So, if you did end up accidentally copying from some source, then only cite the source and be on your way.
If the plagiarism was due to similar wording, but the idea itself is not attributable to a source, then paraphrasing will do the job.
However, paraphrasing is a little bit trickier than citation which is relatively straightforward. Paraphrasing requires that the writer has a large vocabulary and the presence of mind to use it. But there is an easier way as well. You can rephrase online instead.
To paraphrase online, you only need to search for a tool on the internet, provide it with your plagiarized content, and it will automatically change it. You will get a unique sentence/passage without having to spend any effort yourself.
Conclusion
These are a few simple, easy, effective, and actional tips for creating unique and plagiarism-free content. Two of these tips are so easy that you can start applying them right now, while two of them require some time and effort to bear fruit.
You should know that by applying these tips to your write-ups, you can avoid a lot of hassle related to plagiarism. Most professional writers apply all of these things in their own writing as well (except they have editors), so you should do it too.