Summary

The web content discusses the nuances of plagiarism, particularly focusing on whether re-writing an article constitutes plagiarism, with reference to a personal experiment by the author.

Abstract

The article addresses the complex issue of plagiarism in the context of re-writing content, challenging the author's initial belief that only direct copying constitutes theft of intellectual property. It presents an experiment where the author re-writes a news piece from the Daily Mail about Volvo discontinuing certain models in the UK. Despite the re-write passing a plagiarism checker, the author questions the ethical implications of such practices. The article also notes the common occurrence of similar news stories across different newspapers without source attribution, further complicating the definition of plagiarism.

Opinions

The author initially believed that plagiarism was clear-cut, involving direct cutting and pasting of someone else's work.
Susie Kearley's perspective suggests that re-writing a news item can be considered plagiarism, which the author finds surprising.
The author observes that similar news stories appear in different newspapers, each with a unique angle but without crediting the original source, implying a common industry practice that may blur the lines of plagiarism.
After conducting a personal experiment by re-writing an article and running it through a plagiarism checker, the author concludes that re-writing may not always be flagged as plagiarism but still questions the ethicality of the practice.
The author's experiment and the subsequent clean result from the plagiarism checker lead to a broader question about the definition and detection of plagiarism in re-written content.

Is re-writing an article plagiarism?

Plagiarism=the practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own. (Collins Dictionary.)

I have always thought this was very clear.

If you cut and paste some ones work as yours, it was stealing.

However, Susie Kearley has told me that re-writing a news item can be considered plagiarism here on medium.

I find this strange, as I often see the same news items in appearing in different newspapers written by different journalists without any mention of its source.

In, Saturdays Mail and Saturdays Times there was a report on Winchester’s City councils massive increase in parking charges.

Each writer approached the story from a different angle. But it was the same story.

I decide to do a little experiment of my own on this subject.

The following is an article from the Daily mail. There are no reporters name, so I can only say the article came from the Daily Mail.

The Volvo estate reaches the end of the road.

Volvo is to stop selling its much-loved estate and saloon cars in the UK.

It will offer only SUVs following a fall in demand for what had once been cars of choice for many middle-class British families.

A spokesman said: “We continue to rapidly transform our product offer, which means not only moving towards full electrification, but also shifting to new platforms and technologies.

‘As a result, we have removed further models from the UK line-up. These include the S60, V60 and V90.’

Although estate models will not be available in UK showrooms, eager buyers can still find surplus stock on the firm’s website. Volvo estates and saloons will still be produced for other countries where there is demand.

This is my (not very good) re-write on the same subject. I am not a journalist.

Bad news for middle Britons who love Volvo saloons and estate cars.

In response to this fall in demand for these once popular vehicles, the UK customer will only be offered SUVs in the company’s UK showrooms.

Volvo has said they are rapidly transforming their product offer and moving towards full electrification, new technologies and platforms.

This has resulted in the removal of the V60, V90 and V60 models.

However, all is not lost. Surplus stocks of these much-loved vehicles will be available on Volvos’ website.

Volvo will continue to produce their estates and saloons for countries where there is continuing demand.

I ran this through Grammarly’s plagiarism checker, and it came back clean.

It was not considered plagiarism because I had not taken someone’s work or idea and passed as my own.