Guarantee Originality in Outsourcing

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One of the biggest concerns in online outsourcing is the worry over whether we’re buying original content. We all know original content is what attracts website visitors, but as the push for more and more content increases at rates faster than before, it’s easy to understand why plagiarism is on the rise. Not only do people want ‘stuff’, people want that ‘stuff’ now.

Service providers do the best they can to accommodate the demand, but the temptation to fulfill a contract at whatever cost could put the outsourcer at risk via plagiarized material. If you’re facing the same concerns with your outsourced projects, check out these tips on how you can guarantee content that’s exclusively yours. 

Demand Original Material in the Contract

A Good Read: Preventing Plagiarism: Tips and Techniques

This may sound like a no-brainer, but it can’t hurt to stress in the contract that your material must be original. And be sure to take the time to define what original means to you. The term original has seemingly taken a twisted turn on the Internet, and whether or not you agree with its transformation isn’t important. What is important is how you define it so that your service provider’s work conforms to it.

Therefore, when drafting your contract, be as specific as you can about what you want. Never leave ‘what you want’ up to the service provider. Service providers are not mind-readers and abruptness cannot be part of your outsourcing plan.

Turn something like:

“Create a logo”

into:

“Create a logo that displays a male’s right-hand grasping the rectangular-shaped handle of a coffee mug that bears the image of nightfall (a quarter moon and 20-30 small stars against a dark blue back ground). The coffee mug should read ‘I go to sleep with XYZ in MY right hand!’ in 22 point Times Roman font. The cup should contain a translucent dark brown liquid with a small amount of light brown bubbles where the top of the liquid touches the cup. On the side of the cup facing the viewer, there should be a string with an oval tag attached to its bottom. The tag should display our URL in bold 10 point Times Roman font: www.xyz.com.”

Approach your need for original articles in the same manner. Don’t just give your service provider a bunch of topics to write about. Tell your service provider what each paragraph of each topic should discuss. Follow the same procedure for website design, software gui, and anything else that needs originality. Being specific in this stage will strengthen the originality of the final result.

Lengthen Deadlines

A short deadline could contribute to plagiarism, especially when that deadline accompanies a lot a generated material. Service providers aren’t machines, but if you treat them as such, they’ll act as such, and they’ll hand in material that would embarrass your 3rd grade teacher. Slow it down! With original material, you don’t have to rush to be the first. You only need to be the best. So give your service provider an opportunity to supply you with the best with a longer deadline. 

After all, could you write 10 original quality 500-word articles in one day and then continue writing at that pace for a week? If you could, may I ask why you would outsource such a job in the first place?

Think about it.

Use a Screen Capturing Time Card

With a screen capturing time card, you can watch your project develop in almost real-time. This type of time card doesn’t capture every single move that your service provider makes while working, however. It only captures periodic moves. It’s still a great tool to use nonetheless when you want to look out for instances of plagiarism or outright copying. It’s also a great tool to prove plagiarism or copying during a dispute.

Use Chaperon

vWorker lets its employers hire Chaperon-enabled workers. As stated on its website, “Chaperon, LLC, offers a unique portfolio of technology solutions that protect and manage source code Intellectual Property (IP) at every stage of the software development life cycle (SDLC) – no matter where it travels or who is working on it. Source code IP is protected from creation and transport to storage and retrieval whether it remains in-house, is outsourced, or sent offshore.”

Chaperon helps prevent plagiarism before it even starts and you can get it from vWorker.

External Resources:

1. Understanding and Preventing Plagiarism
2. Plagiarism
3. Resources for Preventing and Detecting Plagiarism