Thread: Paralysed with fear of unintentional plaigarism

Hi everyone,

As the title suggests, I have been putting off writing ebooks to supplement my hypnotherapy business (things like confidence-building, hypnobirthing, etc although probably choosing a specific angle) because there's so much material out there already and I worry that my words won't be original enough and/or that I'll inadvertently plaigarise someone else's work that I read years ago and who's message I have internalised.

Any advice on practical matters or laws and guidelines?

Many thanks,
Catherine

A couple of things going on here. Plagiarism is not illegal. It's an ethical violation. Your reputation could suffer if you are caught plagiarizing, but you can't be sued for it. You can be sued for copyright infringement, and the same act can be both copyright infringement and plagiarism, but you need to be concerned about two different things at the same time.
The copyright laws prevent you from using the exact (word for word) expression of an idea. Paraphrasing that idea is perfectly legal. You can use someone else's idea, just use different words to express it. Further, copyright law allows you, under the doctrine of fair use, to extract short passages (up to 250 words) from a copyrighted source. So unless you have word for word internalized a passage of more than 250 words it is impossible for you to unintentionally violate someone's copyright. Copyright infringement only occurs when someone deliberately copies a long passage from a source and pastes it into their own manuscript. Works of fiction have more protection under the copyright laws, but your sources are non-fiction. You do not have to worry about stealing someone else's artistic creativity.
Paraphrasing does not protect you from a charge of plagiarism. If you are using someone else's ideas, you must acknowledge their work. You do this through footnotes and other forms of attribution. There are two forms of plagiarism: passing someone else's ideas off as your own, and failing to attribute the work of others. Of the two, the first is the worst offense, but the latter is intellectually lazy and will also harm your reputation. Will you be writing about your own experiences, and could your own experiences be considered original research? When you start mixing and matching your experiences/research with other people's experience/research, then you must be very clear about who owns what intellectual property. The more attributions you have in your book, the more professional it will appear and the more seriously your readers will take you.
I am certain you are editing your manuscript several times for spelling, grammar, manner of expression, etc. You should also devote one edit cycle to reading each sentence one by one and asking yourself, "How do I know this?" Find sources for everything. If you make a good faith effort to properly attribute everything, you should be fine. Good luck. C.M.

Thank you so much C.M. for taking the time to clarify that for me. It's something to which I will refer often, I expect. Now that I can confidently rule out copyright infringement (my memory isn't that powerful), I was wondering whether I should Google some of the ideas I use and see if any results seem familiar to me as the source. Actually, I am beginning to question just how much, if any, of my work would be original - I expect it'll be littered with attributions once I get started. Personal experience might pad it out a bit, I suppose. Is it vanity to want to create an original work rather than just piece together relevant works from other people to form a message of my own?

The lesson learned is that from now on I must make notes of sources whenever I read anything interesting as I'll never know when it might be useful in my own work.

Thanks again,
Catherine

Hi Catherine -- there are some great websites, and programs to help a writer avoid plagiarism.

Check for Plagiarism On the Web For Free - PlagiarismChecker.com

Hi missmojorising, thanks for the fabulous link. I just tested it out on one particular idea that I couldn't remember if it was my thought or someone else's and it turns out that several people have talked about it before. In this instance, would I choose one person to name as my source or could I get away with saying things like, "It is my belief, and others share this view, that motivation and inspiration are two quite different concepts..."?

Sorry to keep picking your brains here everyone, but I would really like to nail my understanding of this. I've learned a lot already, including where the 'i' goes in plagiarism

Just jump in and start writing!

I get the feeling that you're thinking of excuses why not to write. If you're running a hypnotherapy business, your experience alone in that area will (or at least should) ensure that you have your own voice. Put some thought into why the world needs another book on hypnotherapy and why you're the one to write it. If you're still feeling confident after some reflection, then jump in and get to work!

I think you're right. Confidence is my biggest block to writing. I have no trouble with fiction as it's all my own imagination. Maybe I see fiction as a pleasure and non-fiction as a means to an end. Lots to think about there, but maybe I'll take your advice and just start something. How can I critique the piece before it even exists?!

I just want to say a big thank you to all who have responded here - there's nobody else I could/would have asked and I suspect I'd have just kept putting it all off for another few precious years. Watch this space...

Catherine x

While not exactly the same thing as plagiarism, I have always had the fear that when I am writing my fiction that I will copy too closely something else already written and have gotten to a point where I simply cannot read other authors in the fields I have chosen to write (sci-fi and fantasy). I can read books in other fields like horror, etc. But just not books in my fields. When I would see something in a book that even remotely resembled an idea I had I would get down.

Some people are adamant that you should read what others put out there and that is published in your field to understand what the market is looking for. I don't know if I buy that. And I certainly cannot do it.

Hey Catherine,

I don’t think it is possible to ‘unintentionally’ plagiarize… I have written a plethora of content and blog posts as a freelance writer; in the beginning I had the same fear and I would frequently check my write-ups with copyscape. Believe you me, I have nearly checked 500+ write-ups and never found a single phrase matching anything already published.

Bottom-line: you can’t plagiarize unless you do it intentionally.
I don’t think it is possible to ‘unintentionally’ plagiarize… I have written a plethora of content as a freelance writer; in the beginning I had the same fear and I would frequently check my write-ups with copyscape. Believe you me, I have nearly checked 500+ write-ups and never found a single phrase matching anything already published.
Bottom-line: you can’t plagiarize unless you do it intentionally.

Thanks,
NextGen Writer

If you tell someone to wash a cut and put a bandaid on it, it's not plagiarism even if a zillion people have said the same thing. So I would think there's common lore or whatever the legal term is in hypnosis. I mean "you are relaxing...." is just the sort of thing you'd say in a hypnosis script, so I'm sure other people have. But it's only plagiarism if you crib from them.

Thanks for all the replies, I didn't realise I had any more until now. I'm feeling lots better about all this now, especially with all your reassuring replies. I decided the best thing would be to start writing and see how it feels, so I've started a blog and it's just coming so naturally. After all that worry too!
Thanks again.