by Gordon Hamilton

Created on: May 12, 2009

Plagiarism is essentially the act of taking the words written by another writer and passing them off in one way or another as being our own. Plagiarism is at best deception, and at worst, outright theft. It is a form of cheating and even of laziness at times and can therefore never be viewed as right or even justifiable by any who care about the writing craft and doing the right thing in general.

Plagiarism has of course been around almost as long as published writing. The practise is often very difficult to prove if the plagiarist is clever enough but this in no way excuses or justifies the commission of the act. Changing some of the words around a little to throw the reader off the scent does not change the fact that the bulk of the content was created and published by another writer.

Plagiarism in its conventional form has now largely been supplanted by the advent of the Internet. Online writing has opened up a plethora of opportunities to genuine and honest writers but unfortunately it has similarly catered to the potential plagiarist. "Copy and paste" may well have been invented with all good intentions but it can hardly be disputed that it is equally the plagiarist's favourite new toy. No longer does the plagiarist have to go to the bother of sitting and copying another writer's work word for word - or as good as - they simply click, drag and click again and the job is done.

Internet sites which encourage and even reward writers to write for them are of course particularly susceptible to plagiarists. The plagiarist is unfortunately likely to be a "writer" themselves and to be attracted to these sites in the same way and for the same reasons that honest, hard-working writers are. This means that sites such as Helium, Associated Content, Bukisa and dozens of others like them are likely to be very appealing to the potential plagiarist.

There is very little that any writer can do to prevent themselves or others from falling victim to plagiarism. What all writers can do, however, is be alert to any article, story or piece which they suspect may be plagiaristic, do a bit of digging where possible and if the suspicion still exists, report it to the publisher or hosting site without delay.

There are a great many writers who work long and hard to earn a living or perhaps a second income from their craft. Why should these honest and genuine writers be victimised in this way by faceless plagiarists and their underhand activities? There is no reason I can think of and therefore no justification possible for what is anything but a victimless crime.

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