WHat is going on?!! Account Suspended!!

[zacharyjonah]

Hi

I just wrote my first article and submitted on 31st October. I literally just got an e-mail saying that my account had been suspended as I had plagiarised. I had written about the BCG matrix and a theory that I had learnt from my business studies but I definitely didn't plagiarise because after reading the posts here I was so paranoid about writing anything that could be considered as such, I wrote it from scratch. So to avoid a ranting e-mail (although I am annoyed tbh),

1) Is there anyway to appeal?
2) Any way to check what part they considered plagiarism?
3) Anywhere else I can submit my work, where a) they will take less time to review and b) will pay reasonably well?

Thanks

[Lysis]

A couple of things:

If you didn't quote some page and didn't attribute quotes, then it is seen as plagiarism.
If you rewrote content you already owned and a scraper site took your content, it might be seen as plagiarism.

Usually, when this happens, people rewrite content or copy/paste quotes without attribution.

[zacharyjonah]

Thank you for that...
I e-mailed support and asked them why this had happenned considering I had written mine from scratch and I got this reply:
"Hello,
I just had a look at this, and iThenticate (the utility we use to scan documents) determined that over 10% of the text in your article matched with text from a textbook found at this link:

http://www.bpp.com/cima/papers/samples/p6-chapter07.pdf
We do require that all documents submitted are 100% unique, so unfortunately won't be able to reinstate your account.
Best regards,
Support"

So I tried clicking the link and the page doesn't load. Also I have never seen that page/chapter/exam paper before in my life. I tried explaining to support that actually the theory is a very well known theory and commonly used within marketin strategy so naturally elements of it would correspond. I did attribute it to Boston Consulting Group very clearly at the start. WHen I explained the theory, I put my own twist on the translation of it to avoid plagiarism (!) and then also added a commentary at the end evaluating its usefulness.

Unfortunately support haven't replied to me so I can only assume that they were unable/unwilling to understand most likely because they have too much on their hands. Since then I have taken my original work elsewhere where it has happily been accepted and not a hint of the P-word has come about. It is unfortunate because I genuinely wanted to contribute original works to Constant-content but you know what they say, "One man's rejection is another man's opportunity."

Good luck to everybody else and please feel free to visit my blog www.zacharyjonah.tumblr.com which is meant to be a fun and interesting read into world politics, economics and finance.

Peace

[jadedragon]

That answer was insightful. Not often we get to see exactly what the reason was for suspension.
I guess you remembered too much from your studies including the phrasing. Too bad.