Isn't this plagiarism?

Omarabid,

You bring up a very valid point - writers who are educating others about health benefits of anything should have more qualifications that the average writer. That said, however, there are multiple sources of reliable information on the Internet that the person could have used, with citations, to back up the facts that were being presented. This is the most ethical and factual way of presenting anything health related.

Ajeet, I hope you've already moved on to another writer who will do a better job for you.

Kim

 

Good point. Here is how I deal with that:

1) One of my other conditions (yeah, I have many) is, and I quote verbatim, "Make sure you are not giving any "medical" advice. In fact if the need arises, please tell the reader to take the advice of a health professional"

2) I too am a professional writer (author of two books by McGraw-Hill, ex-guide at About.com, part of the New York Times, and lots more fun stuff). So, I go through the articles to make sure that areas that would need a doctor / health professional are not being dealt with.

Actually, as my large number of WTB threads and iTraders might show, I deal with MANY (by my standards ) all the time.

The particular writer in question is actually a damn decent guy; established member at DP. But we could not agree on the plagiarism front.

I must also point out that I sought his approval before posting this thread, as I did not want to get him all defensive. He wholeheartedly agreed. I volunteered to avoid mentioning his identity directly or indirectly.

 

I understand. You might use an informative article about the appendix, its function, what can go wrong, and how it is treated, all without it giving specific advice. In addition to simply publishing such general material as a way of informing your readers and keeping a steady flow of material, you might add more tightly focused material which you write, as well as adding to the contracted work (if your agreement with the writer allows that).

On the other hand, you might take a general article and with some level of confidence you can insert some public domain medical advice from a government author (whether you give credit or not). There are ways to offer some info which is more detailed than generalities. The risk, as you're aware, is that in health matters there is a risk that someone may die.

 

You are heading in the right direction. Yes the doctor would paid much more.

However if the doctor were on the internet, he would want traffic from the article. Very few people research that. If you write the very highest quality article and no one reads it what value is it? The doctor is paying you for results. The more coming to the site, with a sincere interest, the higher the value to both the doctor and the writer.

Doing a couple methods of mine, I will give you an easy example. A prime topic for the correct doctor would be " Alternative Bone Cancer Treatment. I could guarantee before writing the article this:
1. The number one Google position for the term Alternative Bone Cancer Treatment and Bone cancer alternative treatments and alternative treatments bone cancer
2. That he would get 100 searches in the first month (actually 120)
3. Now I give a high paid doctor an excellent lead system within 48 hours after article issue
4. These "leads" are worth at least $5 to $15 each
5. I charge him $250 for the article.
6. He gets 300 responses in 90 days and they keep coming in
7. Very quickly he makes $25,000.00

Who gets to write his next article?

 

Here is a solution to plagiarism along with more paid to the writer and the author.

The author, or one that pays for the article, does more thinking about the exactness of the article title. The one I gave is a lot tougher for plagiarism.
The writer must do some actual subject research, before writing the article. Both receive more money, as the article carries weight.

 

It's not a straightforward plagiarism case, since he does make an effort to rewrite. However, he fails to meet your requirement of "no rewrite".

 

@Ajeet

Shouldn't it be: I am a professional writer, too.

Anyway, move on to the next writer since what he sent to you is not what you are looking for...

 

Ajeet: Just want to add to the chorus here: that's plagiarized stuff and not what the writer agreed to provide for you. It is unfortunate if the writer misunderstood you, but let that be a lesson to him or her.

What's funny is, it probably takes more effort and time to hand-spin an article sentence-by-sentence. It would probably be faster and easier to re-write an original article based on 2-3 sources.

 

Definitely a rewritten text. Probably his understanding of plagiarism was that the software shows it's 80-90% authentic.

It doesn't take much effort if you're used to it, and writing an article based on 3 sources is more like writing it anew.

 

If you can find the original text somewhere else it's not worth paying for. My writers all know the articles must pass copyscape.

 

What you are doing with using Copyscape is great. However there is a fast 650+ word way to fool Copyscape. I hired dorthy.dot (an excellent writer) who posts on this forum, to help me do some research work. Chris Knight at Ezine Articles and I are exchanging some information to put to to a halt this practice. I do not want to siidetrack the OP, so there are 2 ways you can contact me. I can easily note how you then will not be taken advantage of, without setup up an expensive program for editors like EZA would have to do.