TnT Unleashed 1pic4twenty Blog

 

It’s expected at primary school level already. When children do projects or write information down for orals based on information retrieved from other sources such as books, magazines or websites, they are told to “write it in your own words.”

For people who bother to take the time to do this properly, it can be frustrating and a lengthy process, but is best if they want to avoid any copyright infringement if the original author comes across identical work somewhere, especially if the original author sees no mention of his or her name on the new, but identical document.

Another reason to write new work in your own words is manners. Be polite. Somebody worked hard, or had already taken the time to learn about a subject, to write about it. How would you like it if you see work you’ve written displayed somewhere else, for example on another website – and there’s no mention of your name, no link to your own website, or if you’re happy to give up your rights to it in return for payment, you have recieved no payment? Your work, or parts of it, has just been taken without your permission.

Also, if you worked hard on your writing and were paid for it, why should somebody who is also getting paid to write be rewarded for just copying your work and changing nothing.

So, how does one write an article about something one knows very little or nothing about, without copying what others have already written?

It takes a bit of work – and writers who write for a living and do it properly should be more respected and paid accordingly. Writing, and the research and work that goes with it, is often difficult and time-consuming, and, I feel, is a profession that needs more recognition.

The work involved in writing in your own words – an original article or book – includes:

Using more than just one or two sources of information;

Researching more than just several books or websites, and narrowing down the choices to what you think will best come in handy to refer to when you compile your own original work;

Saving, writing down or typing up parts of the different articles and sourced information into one place to refer to;

An article usually consists of different points or main ideas, and more than one source of information pertaining to the different sections should be saved;

Properly reading (studying) through all the information before starting on your article;

Jotting down short notes or ideas that come to you while reading through all the information;

Thinking of a catchy or creative title and opening paragraph or two, as well as a different angle of approach – something different to any of the other articles before yours – and also tying in your idea or approach here and there throughout the article and allowing it to follow through to the closing paragraph or two;

Using a different format to that of the articles you’re using – if most of them have bullet points, then don’t use bullet points in yours;

Rearranging the flow of paragraphs and sequence of information so that yours reads differently but still makes sense and flows well;

Using the microsoft word synonym function or a thesaurus to make sure you use different words;

Rearranging the order of phrases or words within each paragraph;

Often mixing information and phrases (in your own words), from various sources, into sometimes just one short paragraph.

Reading through the entire article several times once done with it, and making sure it looks and sounds like it flows – the end result must be something that a reader reads and thinks “that was original” – and has no clue that they’ve actually possibly seen the same information in various places elsewhere before, because it looks so different.

also see How to gain credibility as an online freelance writer

© Teresa Schultz