Best way to avoid duplicate content issues here.

[MarieHaynes]

I am planning to write an article that refutes some claims made in another article.  The original article is a 20 page pdf.  What I plan to do is to take quotes from this PDF and then under each quote write my arguments for or against the quote.

If I take direct quotes from the article, is Google likely to see this as duplicate content?

[Cyle]

You can always take screen shots of the sections your are referring to in the PDF, then post the images in your post. Search engines can't read images, so you wont have to worry about duplicate content.

[MarieHaynes]

Oooh!  That's a good idea!

[AlanBleiweiss]

Actually Google does read the text in some images.  It's far from perfect, however it does happen.  The key to success, whatever way you go about it, is to provide more unique commentary for each section you quote than the quoted content itself.  It's important both as an SEO issue as well as a protection within "fair use" laws (at least here in the U.S., anyhow).

Also if you're doing it in a blog, use the "blockquote" feature if you're not using images.  And either way, be sure to link to the original source toward the opening of the article.

[RyanKent]

Alan, can you share why it is important to link to the source at the opening of the article as opposed to the end?

[AlanBleiweiss]

Source attribution up front.  It's not necessarily an SEO thing as much as a "this guarantees it's clear from the beginning that it's a sourced article".  Since user experience is at the top of my SEO best practices list, it should be up top.  There MAY be an SEO factor involved but it's anecdotal at this point.

[MarieHaynes]

Makes sense, ty!