This an important factor in one of our **core values: 'honesty'.**
In the past we have had staff who thought it was OK to plagiarise content from other websites to create content for our own websites or our clients.
This is not okay and can lead to serious problems.
It's also dishonest to plagiarise content and pass it off as your own.
How to Avoid Plagiarism
What is plagiarism and why it's a big deal
- Plagiarism is passing someone else's content or ideas as yours...
- or copying someone else's content or ideas without giving proper credit to the original source.
Plagiarism is essentially theft and fraud committed simultaneously. It is considered theft because the writer takes ideas from a source without giving proper credit to the author. It is considered fraud because the writer represents the ideas as her or his own. (Source www.siue.edu)
Why is plagiarism a serious matter at XEN
Honesty is one of XEN's core values and plagiarism is a form of dishonesty.
No one at XEN has been fired for making a mistake but there are some people who have been fired for being dishonest.
How to avoid plagiarism
- If you copy from other source/s, make sure you give proper credits to the original source/s by including the name of the source plus a link to the page/post
- eg when writing a blog post, add it to the bottom of the post
- If you're presenting someone else's idea, make it very clear with the people you're talking to, where you got the idea from
Nothing is truly original; we all build on the work, knowledge, wisdom and accomplishments of others. (Source: Dan Nielsen)
- Although nothing's truly original anymore, make sure you don't copy other people's content, word for word. Get ideas from different sources, incorporate them (with attribution), and add in your own ideas too.
- If you are including content from another source verbatim, make sure you mark it as a quote, and link to the source
- As a general guide: including a paragraph or two from another source (clearly attributed) is OK. If you are including larger chunks then it's probably not ideal, and would only be appropriate with the other site's permission (eg we copy the full HubShots episode show notes into a XEN post - this is fine since we own both, and thus give permission for this)