Using source material to develop blog topics and to gather facts for your posts is A-Okay. But be wary of how you use source material.
We’re not talking about blatantly copying an entire article or blog post and claiming it as your own. We’re talking about inadvertently using the same language or key phrases as your source material, or pulling a line or two from someone else’s post when you can’t find a better way to convey the same tidbit of information.
No, changing a word or two doesn’t protect you from copyright infringement. And just because everyone seems to be stealing everything, doesn’t mean it’s right. Remember what your mom said about all those other kids and jumping off that bridge. The same holds true here as well.
If you want to know more about what is and is not considered plagiarism, how to avoid it and learn about some of the tools to check your content, read Nick Schäferhoff’s article “How to Avoid Plagiarism on your Blog or Website.”
You’d be surprised how often Google, authors, photographers and other content creators are able to identify plagiarised works.
