Is Spinning It Truly Winning It?
All you have to do is "rewrite" that $80 article because that's what your client requested. "Rearrange this source material and give me an original article," the client requested. However, rearranging source material will not equal originality—neither will swapping out a few words here and there.
Clients demand originality.
Here’s how to give content a thoroughly fresh take.
Rewrites vs. Recaps
Rewrites ask you to write something in a new way that builds on, enhances, or changes the source content.
Recaps require you to write an original piece that briefly summarizes the source.
Both rewrites and recaps require that you work from other content. This material should be at most a source of inspiration, not a building block.
Give These Anti-Plagiarism Strategies a "Spin"
Paraphrase
Create a similarly sized piece of content from the source. Explain it as if you were naturally recounting it to a reader in detail. Try to
Break up complex concepts to avoid falling into the same sentence structures and patterns;
Exchange vocabulary for synonyms using a thesaurus, like Merriam-Webster or thesaurus.com;
Explore novel aspects of the same ideas by swapping phrases, clauses, grammatical parts of speech, and active or passive voicing to change the focus of your writing.
Summarize
Unlike paraphrasing, summarizing boils down source material. Imagine that your audience doesn’t have time to read the whole original. It’s your job to communicate what it’s all about in a condensed form.
Start by taking note of the source’s core concepts.
Next, write entirely fresh content based on those ideas. If you can accomplish this without referring to the original, you have a high chance of avoiding plagiarism.
Sources
Adding additional sources can inject originality into your work. Just make sure that they reinforce the point.
Quotations
Want to include quotes? Limit their length to three or four sentences at most. Never parrot someone else just to boost your word count.
If in doubt, break up long quotes to extract their essential themes. Try restricting yourself to a single quote per 350 to 400 words of writing.
Your quotes should make thematic sense. Do they flow seamlessly within your work’s context? If not, drop them.
Proofread
Don’t just depend on Copyscape to catch everything that’s too similar to the original. Instead, always edit thoroughly to ensure that your writing is wholly unique.
Do you use any of these techniques or others that were missed? Members! Share your stories in the forum.
RWJ Contributing Author, Mel the Writer, is a freelance writer, retro fashion enthusiast, old school video gamer, techie, and the world's most wanted volunteer cello teacher.
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