Who Stole Creativity?

The Case:
The content writers wrestle with the curse of plagiarism often. Few give in, most don’t. Yet the few who do, brand the industry with a stigma that neither they nor the industry deserves. I know that this assertion may result in many raised eyebrows and many exclamations of disbelief. What makes me present a case for plagiarists? I hope this question would be answered by the time you’ve read this article. I address this article not to those who haven’t felt the need to plagiarize, but to those who have.

We all are quite aware of what plagiarism is. We know it wrong, we know it’s akin to stealing, and we also know that it is something that we should not do. Yet, it happens. It happens because the root cause of plagiarism is not available for us to identify and weed out; it is hidden. It’s hidden in form of our creative capability, in a dark, dank, and murky cupboard where many such stolen treasures are kept. It is difficult to identify the pirates who own this cupboard because their omnipresence makes them invisible to us; and because even while stealing our capability to create, they chose not to think of the consequences of their actions. Even when some of us are able to identify them we remain helpless in wake of the necessity of their presence in our lives.

The Starting Point:
Of course, it’s difficult to find the starting point for the need to plagiarize, but the nearest point can probably be found in our educational system. It is mired in behaviorism, which is applied even in the cognitive domain. In our system of education, the learner becomes habituated to "not creating", but only “using” what is already there. The philosophy that we assimilate is – “If it doesn’t already exist, it cannot be correct or good,” and this philosophy tosses our creative capabilities into the cupboard that we just talked about.

But then, due to the presence of some skills that continue to shine through, when the individual ends up in a place where he is expected to create, a dilemma surfaces. The person is now expected to deliver something, using the creative capability that has already debilitated due to a lack of “constructive” nourishment. The situation is difficult for the individual. The organization requires that the content be delivered; the individual is unable to deliver.

The person now picks up the content from the nearest source, to find inspiration. Along with inspiration comes the feeling of inadequacy. This leads to copying of content. Yet the guilt lingers on. “Copying is bad, plagiarism is illegal, so let us disguise it!” Then modifications take place. These modifications bring down the effectiveness as well as the quality of the content. The dowdily dressed content, now masquerades as a half-witted psychopath that fails to draw the attention of the intended audience.

Plagiarism takes place when we lose the courage to stand by our own abilities to reason and create. If we have the intellectual prowess to formulate views, if we can proudly voice our opinion in our circle of friends - why do we lack the courage to write the same views down?

When it comes to writing, plagiarism usually takes place when the writer doesn’t love writing, and so doesn’t feel pride in his creation; but writes out of a necessity.

Falling in Love: Before or After
It is fairly easy to identify whether or not you love to write. The litmus test is not whether you write grammatically correct language nor does your command over a language necessarily spell a passion for writing. It could just mean that you learned a language skill well. If you were in love with writing, you would feel it in your heart. Your love for writing would be evident when you read something that you’ve written, and your heart skips a beat. If you would like to read it out to someone, and if you don’t find anyone else, you would probably read it aloud to yourself.

To excel in any field it is important to be in love with it, especially if the field requires creativity. This brings us to the question – can we fall in love with something, that we earlier were just acquainted with. Why not?

Let us take a simple but relevant example. There are two ways to get married – fall in love then get married or get married then fall in love. In the first case, marriage is the conclusion (or so it seems before marriage) of love, while in the second; marriage is the reason to fall in love. Happiness and contentment with marriage is most often than not, the result of falling in love. Whether it happens after or before marriage doesn’t matter in the long run.

Transcending from marriage and love, into job and passion for work; let us review the possibility of falling in love with our work. Though we may not crazy about it right now, still there is a possibility to build a good relationship with it. Just the way, falling in love after marriage is the result of finding what’s good about one’s partner; falling in love with your work is about finding out what’s so beautiful about it. If we talk about writing in particular, we should try to determine what’s so great about writing.

Are you in Love?
The first step towards determining the positive characteristics of writing could be learning more about it. I do not mean to say that you should buy Wren & Martin or Norman Lewis – what I mean is you should read what feels nice, and try to analyze what makes it feel nice. You should analyze your favorite authors’ writing to determine what they do to achieve the “suspension of disbelief.”

In addition to this, you can also store your own content for future reviews. Every month dig some of your earlier content out, and read it to identify the changes. If you’ve read the whole month, it is only natural that your writing would have evolved. Continuous self-reviews are the best self-improvement tools, but they are equally difficult to implement!

Over a period of time, you may discover that you’ve actually begun to love writing. After the above self-review/self-improvement process, if you find that every morning, your fingers can’t wait to begin their dance on the keyboard floor; and that everything that you see around you makes you think of words that you didn’t know, you knew – you can be sure that you have fallen in love!

But if this doesn’t happen, you may want to assess why you want to be a writer.

Why We Fall into the Loveless Trap?
Writing isn’t only about correct grammar and punctuation, nor it is just about writing logically in crisp clear sentences. It is about enjoying the process. If you enjoy writing, it shows – it shows through incorrect grammar and lost punctuation; through skipped words and incorrect phrases; and through spelling errors. These mistakes and errors just show that you don’t have good command over a particular language - that is all! Language skills can be learned; love and passion can only be experienced!

But then why does a person who doesn’t like to write, chooses writing as a career option? I think the answer lies in the way education is imparted and the way society perceives education. It is a vicious cycle, at a scale so big that it’s difficult to break. Still some introspection could help.

Our education system, which has recently begun to adapt itself to the constructivist approach to learning; has behavioral roots. The behavioral approach, as we all know fosters the skills of memorization and, at best, application. It doesn’t allow the learner the independence to “construct” knowledge.

The Trap with Behaviorist Bars
As kids, most of us have gone through 12 years of “behaviorist” education. We’ve done things without knowing why we should have done them. Then in college the same method of imparting education prevailed. We still sat in classrooms, listened to lectures, heard the examples given by the professors, noted them down, went home, memorized them; then appeared for exams, wrote the same answers and passed with distinction!

When we were kids, we didn't question why we learned things the way we did. We did not have the capability to question. After completing 12 years of school we made our choices – Engineering, Medical, Science, Commerce, and so on. Probably, it wasn’t you or I who made the choice for what we were to become. The choice was made by our parents, our society; or even by our education system. Parents wished that we became doctors, engineers, or space scientists! They almost never wished that we became artists, writers, poets, or teachers! It was the society that influenced our parents. With our education system and the dearth of good learning institutions, for many of us, the percentage cut-off list probably decided our fates! Love for work, for us has always been a chance outcome. Most of us haven’t been trained to be writers nor are we writers because it was our life’s dream to be so.

The Good News:
But the good news is that the faculty to determine whether we are on the right path grows as we grow up. Since, we cannot hold ourselves responsible for the way we learned when we were kids; we should experience no shame in questioning our own actions, and taking remedial action. The remedial action could be in the following forms.

1. Reassessment of Goals:
   We have ample opportunities in the world today. Humans have different inclinations. If you don't enjoy writing, if you don't feel blood coursing in your fingers when you write, if you don't feel that the experience of writing creates a whole new world around you, don't write. Determine what gives you pleasure. Is it art, is it talking to people, or is it traveling. Take a step in the right direction, towards your dreams; and move on!
   
   
2. Reassessment of Environment:
   If you love to write, but still you find yourself being driven towards plagiarism, stop. Ask yourself, why you are doing it. If you write because you love to, your writing should be an expression of your own ideas; not a distorted reflection of someone else's creation. Review your environment. Determine the factors that are making you kill your ability to express and move your audience. If you can change the factors, change them; else change your environment.

It's just one lifetime that we are given to spend. Unlike money, we can’t grow our lifetime. Let's spend it with care, on things that make us proud of our existence…of having contributed our “original” bit towards making the world a better place for our children.

Author: Shafali R. Anand