[Zacc]

A big challenge for most writers is how to deal with plagiarism issue. How do you deal with it as a freelance writer?

Are there websites/software you use to scan your work before publishing/submitting to clients?

[henry]

I publish my own work so I have naver faced this problem.

[Zacc]

That is good of you @henry

[kendralala]

I also make sure that I make and construct my own to avoid this. But sometimes, because of being readers, we unconsciously write something written by someone we have read before…

[kendralala]

I also have known a plagiarism checker. I tried it checking my original work but I ended up 75% original only. I was wondering how could it happened when everything came actually from my mind..I tried it many times with another works but had the same result. maybe that checker wasn’t reliable, i may say

[Kyla Matton Osborne]

@kendralala Computerized plagiarism checkers will flag all kinds of weird things. If you used a common phrase like “of the” too many times in a single document, that will be counted as not original.

If you writing on a technical topic such as quantum computing (something I wrote about in a post on Canada’s new Prime Minister) you might have to use very specific phrases, or even specific combinations of phrases, that the plagiarism checker will see as being “copied.”

In most cases, as long as there is no more than 15-25% similar/matching content, your work would be considered original. So if you got a score of 75% original, that’s right on target.

[Zacc]

@kendralala I think most of the work that you find not original yet it is your own is due to the common sentences. There are also common expressions which are used by most writers. That though should make your work to be around 90% original

[Kyla Matton Osborne]

Some sites where I submit work do scan before publication, but otherwise I really don’t use a plagiarism checker. I know my content is original, and I can’t say I’ve found a really useful free plagiarism checker.

That being said, when I’m moderating content or just reading other writers’ posts, plagiarism is pretty obvious. Google is actually a fantastic resource for tracking it down and proving it.

[Karen Fainges]

I agree Kyla, Google is great for checking work. I use it with student papers all the time. Just copy in the first couple of paragraphs and up she comes. It’s sad how often it works 🙁

[Author]

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