Some think it is inborn, others believed it to be nurtured. Whatever the case might be, creativity is slowly losing its meaning, being replaced by plagiarism.
There was a time when everything- ranging from school homework to articles published in newspapers and magazines were all ‘authentic’ firsthand pieces, and a product of creativity. However, now the element of plagiarism is mostly present in all of them.
Let’s start with home assignments. Gone are the days when students used to spend hours and hours searching for relevant material, using books, magazines, newspaper clippings and every other source that can help. Now Google provides a simple solution to all these problems, answer to all the questions and an easy substitute to the long hours previously spent in the libraries. All you have to do is to type the command, click and here you go- hundreds of options appear on your computer screen within microseconds. Just copy and paste or edit a little and here you are with your very own masterpiece- at the cost of creativity ofcourse.
Same is the case with articles, stories and other pieces that are published in various publications. There are those who still use their creative juices, but there is no dearth of those who prefer benefiting from other’s hard work. They would just choose a topic, gather information using any search engine, add a few lines of their own and start calling themselves ‘writers’.
What these plagiarists don’t realize is the fact that they are doing harm to nobody but themselves. Going the right way not only causes one’s information to increase but also allows his creativity to get polished- as the only way to learn is to read and read and read, there is no shortcut to it nor is any other way out.
The question arises: whose fault is it? Who is the main culprit? Who is causing rapid growth of the phenomenon? The teacher or the student? The writer or the publisher?
The answer is: all of them. Each and everyone should perform his duty in a proper fashion to put an end to this so-called prevailing trend that is justified in the name of ‘convenience’. Everybody posses the ability to do it- all you need to do is to take one little step with which the journey of a thousand miles began.
Creativity should be encouraged and appreciated and a ‘say no to plagiarism’ scheme should be adopted in order to prevent the upcoming generations from getting nothing but ‘plagiarized material’.
