by Rachelle de Bretagne

Created on: May 28, 2011   Last Updated: May 30, 2011

The Helium Writing Standards are set on a page to help writers to appreciate what is expected of them. Recently updated, these standards form the basis of guidelines set for writers on Helium's website and encompass rules and style format which is considered the most friendly to the readership. Found on the website, it's a worthwhile place for members to stop and read occasionally as remembering what the writing standards include is vital to success.

Old habits a writer may have built up during their writing career may be holding them back from Internet success. The reason for this is that the rules of writing differ between that produced traditionally and that produced for the Internet.

The Writing Standards are included on the help pages. Under the heading of Writing and Editorial Standards, the page takes writers through the website expectations of their writers. It explains that although the website is US based and expects a good level of English grammar, UK English is equally acceptable, and English writers who choose to can adopt the US style of writing, spelling and punctuation. The choice is theirs.

It's strange how people perceive the two languages, and occasionally British writers have articles flagged for spelling by American writers who believe that the American spelling is the correct format. Both are acceptable to the site.

Plagiarism

The site has Writing Standards for a purpose. These include the fact that all work submitted to the site must be original and not copied from any other source. The importance of originality is that copied work gives a writer a bad reputation, but the consequences are wider than that. The work that Helium writers produce is what gives the site its reputation. If Helium allowed work which was copied and did nothing to stop this infringement, then the site reputation is also affected.

Plagiarism is against the law and it is common sense that this be included in the Writing Standards. If quoting from other websites, the work quoted must only be a small part of the article, and be in quotation marks to show that the Helium author does not take credit for the work of another writer. This is vital and what many writers do not understand is that paraphrasing is equally bad.

Paraphrasing is pasting work from another website, and then keeping everything in the same order, changing a few words so it looks like the work is original. This is strictly against site guidelines and a team of plagiarism experts will check content

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