We’re going to take a look at a couple of writing sins that HireWriters really frowns upon.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the very worst sin you can commit on HireWriters. It’s worse than…well, anything else you can think of!
The definition of plagiarism is copying someone else’s work, with or without permission. Every article that you write for HireWriters goes through the CopyScape plagiarism checker before it’s submitted to the client. If the checker finds too much similarity with an article that it finds online then it will fail CopyScape, and you will be notified. You will be shown a copy of your work with the offending sections and words highlighted.
People often query the fact that individual common words are highlighted when work is checked for plagiarism. What is going on here is that CopyScape is detecting a similar word order in the original, copied, article, in combination with whole phrases from that article, in the work that is being checked. Common phrases, trade names, proper names, and so on will not cause you to fail CopyScape. You’ll only fail if your work is too derivative, too unoriginal.
You have the opportunity to resubmit your work with the plagiarism removed. You are given two more chances to change your work, and if you don’t succeed on the third attempt, then your account will be suspended, and you’ll have to argue your case with HireWriters’ Customer Service team. In the meantime, your work is treated as if it has not been delivered, and you won’t get a chance to resubmit it. So it’s a good idea to work really hard to make your work completely original.
We are very used to hearing writers complain that their work has been rejected, and that they didn’t copy. In VERY rare instances, this is true. But in 99% of cases – sorry – you copied. And that is a big no-no.
The reason clients are so intent on receiving original copy is that many search engines will detect and penalize copy which isn’t original. And most of our clients are looking for copy which will do well with the search engines. You should always remember that you are there to serve your client – if you do a good job, then the client may give you a tip, or give you a five star rating and a great review, or put you on their list of favorite Writers and offer you more work in the future. Building up a list of satisfied clients should be one of your main objectives – this is the way to build a decent income from your writing.
The members of the Customer Service Team at HireWriters are all ex writers, so they are generally fairly forgiving if you run afoul of CopyScape. However, if you get more than one CopyScape ban in a short period of time, you risk having your writer account suspended permanently.
Of course, when you are researching a subject, as is often the case on HireWriters, you do have to go online and read about it. If it’s a big job, and a subject that you are not very familiar with, the best plan is to take notes, then shut down those source documents and write your article from scratch. The client is paying for original work, and that’s what you should deliver.(It’s a great side benefit of working for HireWriters that you have the opportunity to learn about all sorts of interesting and unusual thing – it’s kind of an earn While You Learn program.)
Sometimes clients ask, quite legitimately, for a lot of quotes in an article. Beware! CopyScape doesn’t recognize quotes. You will be thrown out for plagiarism, even though it’s innocent. The only way around this is to have the client post the work as a Rewrite job. When they post rewrites, they are given the option to override CopyScape. It’s a work around, a bit clumsy, but, it will help both you and the client.
Word Stuffing
Another issue which you may come across is Word Stuffing. This can be defined as a way of stringing out your work to meet the required word count with superfluous fluff. Although your work will not be checked by HireWriters for word stuffing, clients always notice it and they can reject work if they feel that the article is not substantial enough.
Let’s take a good look, in fact, let us together take a very close and detailed look, one that anyone can understand and absorb, at the whole word stuffing concept, and indeed, at the very practice of word stuffing, which means for the most part, the extremely common practice of writing many, indeed, a very great many, words and phrases, which do not, by any manner of means or reasonable standards, in any way, shape, form, manner, or kind, contribute, enhance, adorn, or make any addition to, the content, meaning, value, or substance of the work which the writer, or any other person involved, might give or contribute to the work or article in question.
Get it? That’s a sentence which makes little or no sense, contributes little or nothing to the value of the content, and is a blatant attempt at word stuffing. It’s nice and long though, and extremely verbose!
Don’t go there. Clients aren’t stupid, and they frequently reject this kind of work.
There are very odd instances, usually when copy is only destined to be machine read, that frequent mentions of key phrases and words are requested. This kind of work is almost always posted at Beginner level, and pays relatively little, as no kind of skill is really involved. These kinds of jobs can be good fillers, or stepping stones to reach a higher level or a better star rating.
Avoid these two pitfalls, and you will find your work is well received and your reputation on HireWriters will build, bringing you more work in the future. Ignore them, and you’ll end up losing both time and money.
