5 Ways to Avoid Plagiarism as a Christian Blogger

There are many content resources online and the truth is, it may be almost impossible to resist the temptation of taking someone else’s work and putting it up. One reason why people do this is because they feel pressured to publish articles and blog posts for their audience, but then there is much more. When you want to write an article and you do a search online, you will discover that someone somewhere has likely written something about that title, so you may be left with seeking resources from the already published work or writing from the scratch.

You see, the Bible itself is in public domain because it was published originally a long time ago, and except for the efforts of publishing houses, there is very little to do about copyright for the Bible. But then, the fact that you are a Christian Content creator does not mean that you should suffer from plagiarism, right?

God is the Creator of all things and we have His creative DNA in us. The Bible says in Psalm 82:6 that we are gods because we are children of the most high God. With the creative mind of God in you as a Christian content creator or Christian Blogger, it is wrong to engage in plagiarism of any kind. Only the devil supports such and trust me, when you publish that plagiarised content on your Christian blog, he is somewhere laughing out loud and mocking the creative nature of God in you. 

How then can you avoid plagiarism as a Christian Blogger or Christian Content Creator? In what ways can you create better content as a Christian without plagiarising?

 

Understand Your Article Title

While posting content developed by others, include your personal thoughts and observations to show that you understand the message you want to pass across to others. You can decide to read articles, books and related resources about the subject you are writing about, but it is also necessary that you include your thoughts in a more appropriate manner that will balance your ideas and make your content worth reading.

 

Create Your Draft

Always create a first-hand draft of your thoughts and opinions on the subject of writing before you go online to do your research. The reason why you should do this is because, at the time of your first draft, you only have yourself to rely on. You will not write based on what you have recently read or researched on Google, but totally write based on what you know is right. You can start by breaking down the words and checking the dictionary to fully grasp the meaning of your title or topic, then begin to categorise your writing into bullet points. For example, if you want to write about 5 Biblical Ways to Becoming a Woman of Influence, drawing your inspiration from the book of Proverbs which you studied in the last month, you can simply think out those things you studied, summarise them and build up your content around it.

 

Write from your Heart or Your Brain

Depending on the kind of article, there are two ways to come up with ideas for writing. The first is to write from your heart. Here, you can be as emotional as you want and it is usually in a bid to properly relate with your audience. In most cases, this is very practical as you are prompted to include real life experiences to connect with your audience. On the other hand, you can choose to write from your brains. For this, you only need to rely on your professional or basic knowledge of the subject, follow topic principles, past studies and may not include any personal relations.

Respect and Love Yourself

Self respect is another basic reason why you should not plagiarise another creator's content. As a Christian Blogger or Creative, it is necessary to build up respect for yourself and other bloggers or christian creatives. That way, you have value for your work and others without hatred of any form. Respect in itself brings love and harmony. Even though our results and statistics may differ as Christian creatives and bloggers, respect and love is necessary to share the Gospel of Christ across the nations of the world, using the internet as our tool.

 

Reference the Writer

If you cannot totally avoid copying content from other sources, it is preferred that you acknowledge the author. It takes hard work to put content together and a direct reference to the original content creator will do you no harm. It instead shows that you have integrity as an individual and that is one of many proofs of the Holy Spirit in you as a believer.

 

Plagiarism is simply theft and it is masterminded by the devil himself. The devil is a plagiarist who tries to clone and copy all of God's creativity, an activity he woefully fails at. The fake can definitely never equal the original and it is in your best interest as a Christian Blogger or Creative to avoid plagiarism in any form