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hi,

Can you be sued if you just rewrite paragraphs and sentences that sound similar to a self-development self-help articles from a book

if they were the first one to write about it?

That really depends, without more info it's hard to tell.
The way you put it sounds like plagiarism, you can't just rewrite things you've found in another manual and pretend they are your own invention.
If I were you I would ask a qualified lawyer though.

Well, I would imagine you could write about the same ideas or concepts, but the closer whatever you write is to something someone else has written, the closer you're getting to plagiarism. (And getting in trouble for it.) The best thing, of course, is to write everything from your own mind, even if you're saying the same thing.

The other way, of course, is to put the exact text in your work, and cite it to give the original author credit. But the Baron is right, you should probably consult a professional to make absolutely sure you can't get in trouble one way or another. Once you get accused of plagiarism, your credibility is gone and no one will respect you ever again.

Okay. What if i do cite the source and lets suppose it is the bible because I would be talking about God. However, their is another book that actually sounds and matches more the sentences I will be using in my book. So will that still be called palagerism since they cannot really support their argument that I got it from their book (even though it does sound similar) as I will do cite that I recieved the information from bible but not the exact quotes on what it being said, but from my own interpretation of the bible verses?

You can't cite an interpretation. Citation means you put down the exact text as it appears and then, either in a footnote or a bibliography at the end, put down every bit of information about the specific book, edition, printing, etc. There are many ways to do it, not sure what the best format for a published book is.

Another way is to paraphrase what is being said; you know, you give a brief overview of the ideas another author has published, beginning with something like, "So-and-so says in his/her work, etc, followed by the paraphrase. You still have to cite the author and source, though.

My best advice is, why bother taking any risk? If what you're writing is original, you're usually not going to get sued. But if what you're doing is just trying to take something someone else has written, change it up a bit and presenting it as yours, that will get you in huge trouble. All this talk of 'matching sentences' can only happen if your glancing at their pages and typing different words alone the same lines at the same time.

There's nothing wrong with using someone else's ideas and writing about them, especially if you have something new or different to contribute. What you can never do is just use what they've written. Besides, people can tell it's a better author when it's all original. Even if you manage to get away with it legally, people are always quick to label anything that seems like plagiarism and spread the word like fire. Just look at poor Chris Paolini, and there's not even a solid argument for plagiarism there, in my opinion.

Sorry, am I preaching to the choir? Your last post was a little hard to decipher.

okay i understand I will not try anything illegal. Just want to clarify what was premissible and what was not. So thank you for all your help!