I am an educational blogger and I also teach academic English at various universities in the UK. I am now blogging, here, about more general topics like planning, beauty and fun girlie stuff. I have become a member of many blogging/bloggers’ groups and have been connecting with people who blog (but are not educational bloggers). An interesting question popped up by a blogger called Victoria in a Blogging Boost group Facebook group. She shared an article about plagiarism and asked what other bloggers consider plagiarism and how they avoid it. I realised, after browsing through various blogs, that some bloggers do not acknowledge sources or give picture credits, but why?

This may be happening for two reasons:

1. They are using only their own material and pictures.
2. They are just not acknowledging other people’s work and using it in their blog posts (plagiarism happening intentionally or unintentionally).

But, if you are getting ideas/pictures/videos from other people and not acknowledging them, and now I am going to go into teacher mode, it is an offence, and you could in small or bigger trouble for it!! Oh! Let’s not get into using someone else’s work and making money from it or let’s do, remember this song?

(www.youtube.com)

They have lost all the rights to this song, cause it is a plagiarised rolling stones song (www.rollingstones.com).

Things to think about

What is plagiarism?

The verb plagiarise means:

To use to use another person’s ​ideas or ​work and ​pretend that it is ​your own

(www.dictionarycambridge. org)

In simple words, anything you find someone else and publish on your website (texts, pictures and videos) and you do not acknowledge where you found it.

What is not plagiarism?

Common knowledge:  E.g.  People use computers, Brad left Jennifer and married Angelina.

So, am I plagiarising if I…

• Use Google pics and say I found this on google pics?

Yes! ( you need to find who took the picture!)

• Read something, somewhere, and then write my own stuff based on it?

Yes (say who inspired you/why you are writing this, based on what?).

• Paraphrase or summarise something so technically not using someone else’s words? I am using my  own so now they are my words…..

Yeap!! (You still have to acknowledge if you have read something somewhere).

• Find a cool quote somewhere, use the exact same words, but no source/author?

Yes

• Read  something on Wikipediaand I remember it?

Yes (Keep in mind though that the information you find on Wikipedia is not reviewed, so you cannot really know if it is true. People who write on Wikipedia are just like me and you).

• Copy a whole text with the same or similar words/structures, but do mention the author?

Yes (unless you use quotation marks,if you are, then no).

How can I see if I am plagiarism something?

There are loads of plagiarism detecting software available, but the easiest thing to do is to put your text into Google, if it pops up, then you are plagiarising!

How do I acknowledge people/ pictures?

These are my suggestions and how I try to avoid plagiarism.

People/websites

If I find something on a blog/website, I put the website in brackets and add the link in the brackets (example the Cambridge dictionary which I linked earlier).  If I am using information from a book, I add a reference list ( teacher mode: reference list goes in alphabetical order).

Pictures

If I use a picture, I add the name of the person who took it under the picture. If I do not know the name, and it is just a website I say picture is taken from http://www.xyz……….com. (BUT I do not use other people’s pictures if I cannot give them credit: teacher mode)

* By the way, try to write down everything correctly, try not to change people’s names!!Also, if you are going to use a picture maybe you should check the host’s website and see if there are copyright restrictions or a license on their website that prohibits it. You need to email and ask for permission to use the pictures!

So, I know how I am going to avoid plagiarism, but how do I stop others from stealing my ideas/pictures?

Well, there is not much you can do in today’s day and age. Everything is public, people have access to what you share online.  I have added a creative commons license to my sidebar just to show that I do want my stuff to be acknowledged. You can find the link to creative commons  here.

Final thoughts

You do not have to go crazy and start worrying about referencing systems and all that (you are blogging, not submitting your paper to Harvard) but do make sure that you mention people when you are using their stuff. It is the best way to go and it shows respect.

Hope you like this blogging tip. If you want more information read this article shared by Victoria on the Blogging boost Facebook page. I have posted another post about blogging etiquette and bits and bobs you might also want to check out. You can find it here

So that’s all folks. Feel free to leave a comment below. Sorry for the teacher mode!! I hope you found some of my suggestions thoughts helpful. Don’t forget to ‘follow’ this blog if you like what you read.

Talk soon

xxx

So, new blog, first post.Let’s talk about blogging.

When I started blogging, I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into. I started off as part of my training for a teaching diploma. So, my first blog posts were about the things I tried out in class and ideas for tasks. During my first year of blogging I didn’t really blog much (compared to now I mean) and I wasn’t really that active in social media either. Now, two and a half years later, I know a few more things and that’s what I am going to share today. You see, while this is my first post here, I have been an educational blogger for some time now. I know a thing or two you may find helpful.

Firstly …… share

If you are going to blog and want people to read your blog posts, you also need to promote your work. I mean, yeah sure, your blog may be you talking about the things you love, but you are also blogging because you want people to read you (aren’t you?). You want to share your ideas and learn from others through their comments. If you wanted your blog to be private, then why have it at all? Why not just write in  notebook, like back in the good old days when we only had notebooks?

So, once you have written something and pressed the publish button, what next? Well, you share/promote.

Where?

Facebook for starters. I share all my rambles on Facebook (luckily, Facebook doesn’t disown you if you are a prolific blogger like me  :p). Apart from your personal page, you can also share your posts on Facebook group pages.

You can also add hash tags on your Facebook entries because they do show up if someone searches for something you have has tagged (and anyway, urban legend says hash tags are good, so just add’em , will ya?).

Google+

I also share my post by pressing Google+. If I am a member of a Google group and my post will probably interest the people in that group, then I share in that particular group. You share with your cirles and then with extended circles.

Twitter

I must admit this is my go to place to share my posts. First of all, I tweet my posts for a few days. Not just once. The life span of a tweet is not that long. I mean your followers will only see it for a few minutes and then it’s lost in the abyss. There are also twtter chats that you can take part in. The more people you ‘meet’ online, the more chances there are that someone will find your post interesting and then share it with other people.

Extra tip: Try to use the same names on your social media. My blog is called mypinkrambles and that’s what my twitter name for this account is as well @mypinkrambles (follow me btw if you want to ofcourse 🙂  ).

A few more thoughts about blogging

Saying thanks: I think it’s necessary to always thank people who share or retweet your posts. It’s nice of them to be sharing, and you should be saying thanks. I also think that if you read something and think it’s good, you, too, should be retweeting and sharing their posts as well.

Comments: I reply to comments.  I ❤ comments. I enjoy reading them. If someone is going to write something in response to a post they read on my blog, I find the time to reply. I may not do it the same day, but I really try to reply to everyone. Also, comments give me a sense of who reads my posts and what the people reading my posts are interested in.

Blogger vs. WordPress

I started off on Blogger but after almost two years of blogging on Blogger, I moved to WordPress. The move is easy. The bad thing is that you lose all the nice comments and documents and PPTs you shared on Blogger do not get transferred and there is a bit of a formatting issue. I like the widgets on WordPress and how easy it is to embed things. I do miss the font options Blogger had.

Inspiration

I like blogging about the things I am interested in. So far I have been blogging about teaching, but it’s time for a change (hence the new blog). I have also found that I often tend to be borderline personal (two years blogging about teaching? Nah… I have rambled about loads of random stuff about my life). So, I guess my life is my muse as well! I like approaching blogging as if it is diary or journal writing. Articles or other blog posts also inspire me. This is why I also enjoy taking part in blog challenges and chains. It makes me feel like I am part of a community. YouTubers and magazines are also places where I get ideas.

Photos

I now take my own. As a teacher, I think it is really improtant to acknowledge other people’s work. If I cannot give picture credits, then I avoid using the picture.

Making money off your blog

Hmm wouldn’t it be cool if you could make a ton of money from blog posts? My other blog has had about 135.000 page views in total. I have received two free books and I also made 10 euros which were then taken back. What am I talking about? AdSense. Adsense is Google’s advertising platform(?) / company(?). Anyway, if you want to add ads to your blog, you add Adsense. I did. I got some clicks and then was chcuked off cause of invalid clicks. Have no idea what that (invalid clicks) means exactly. I tried to appeal but it my account is still disabled, so, yeah. Don’t mess with Google…. or….no money from my blogging. I have made loads of online friends and learnt a lot though, so it’s fine. I   ❤  blogging anyhoo!

Final thoughts….

Blogging is a commitment. It takes time. I also think it walks hand in hand with social media. Oh! Yes, one last thing. Once you have ‘blogitis’ (it’s what all prolific bloggers have), you might wake up in the middle of the night with a good blogging idea. That’s why you should always have a note pad next to your bed. Don’t worry, it’s normal (ummmm, I think).

This post originally appeared on myeltrambles.com, but I have adapted it here.

If you have any blogging tips or just wanna say, “Hi!” Go for it. The comments section is all yours!!

Talk soon

xx

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