Plagiarism : The banyan tree with many roots

Why do people plagiariaze?

Dig deeper into the issue, and analyse what we learn about writing as kids. At least,this is what happens in the city schools of India. Kids learn this:

Write verbatim from the text

You will get the highest grade

You will get a great job.

A student is thus trained to memorize and reproduce, and mostly does not learn to write on her own. When she writes digitally she finds it hard to write but easy to just copy and paste. Voila! That is plagiarism.

Institutions use software to identify plagiarized writing, but students with writing projects assigned to them are desperate to make the grade and being clueless about writing, take the help of homework writing services. Pay a few pounds, dollars or rupees, and the head ache you suffer from not being able to complete your writing project is taken care of.

On their part, teachers are hard pressed for time and many of them just want that year's work completed, graded and put on record. They also sometimes fail to stress upon the need to acknowledge sources. Some students are not even aware of why they should do that.

What happens once the young writer lands a great job? She sees the following:

Colleagues are unsure and communicate poorly

New technologies are emerging everyday

There is a need to connect with a wide range of stakeholders online

A combination of factors are at work here: little training at school, the habit of rote memorizing and reproduction, the compulsion to create content within deadlines. All of these make the writer do what she sees as the easiest thing to d. She continues to copy and paste large amount of content, knowing well that no one has the time to find out if the content is original or not.

Most people do not blink when they do this. They are so used to this, that they even believe at some point that this content is their own creation. They speak about it with great authority. Sometimes when we dig,we hit dirt. Similarly, qestion these writers some more and we hit on a dirty secret. This writer did not even read what he has copied, pasted and boasted about. But they own it.

Plagiarism is like the banyan tree with many roots. Multiple causes make it one of the pressing problems of the day.

Writing for real life: Who writes online?

 So who or which category of people needs to write?

What comes first of all to your mind?

Writers of fiction, non-fiction, newspaper articles, right?

Think again

Students, ofcourse

They write exams, papers, take notes and so on.

Is that it?

Executives in the corporate sector too!

They have to draft, mails, memos and communicate with clients.

What about all the content online?

Yes, of course, marketers, content writers, bloggers, and meme makers

Everyone is looking for something to post or forward online.

And creative content, does it need writers?

Absolutely, be it Youtube or Netflix, the better the script, the greater are the content's chances of being successful.

So, do you see, how much content is created, forwarded and consumed every day.?

The truth is almost everyone needs to write and there is no one who can get away from writing.

Writing is a part of life for most people now.

Writing that turns heads

 Our writing can turn heads, bring smiles and make our readers reach out to us. This is the ideal everyone aspires to. But how does one make it a reality?

Let's face it. We used to think that templates would help us write all our official mails. But once we started to work, we had to craft original content to  communicate. To connect with customers and co-workers: was it as easy as we had assumed? A 2018 survey on the oral and written communication skills of students by the Employers and Students Association gave the following results

4000 students rated themselves at 79 percent in oral and written communication 

                                                 While 

201 employers who participated in the survey rated the students at only 41.6percent. 

Writing in real life is an everyday challenge that is underestimated by those who aspire to grow professionally. Everyone is looking for the right thing to say. Today's world can be compared to Alibaba's cave filled with treasures and riches. Just as the cave opened to the magical chant,

 "Open Sesame" 

Professionals need the right words to open doors for them. You see, people are consuming content online as never imagined before, and you should be eager to make your online presence felt and appreciated. When you are passionate about what you do, you must not hesitate to open the door to prosperity by using the magic of words.  You can either 

a.outsource your work

         or 

b. co-create it

We are here to help you either way. I have helped professionals express themselves with clarity and persuasiveness over two decades. 

Our program "Write Right",  will assist you over a period of two months and ten session in  finding your authentic voice.

 We will hand hold you through the nitty gritty of content marketing and help you to 

a. probe your client's needs thoroughly

b. analyse the trends

c. write clearly and authentically

d. persuade your customers

e. continuouly adapt yourself to the flux we call the market

Starting Trouble?

 Hello Hearts and Heads!

Feels great to reach out to all of you here.

When writing comes naturally, it's more like a trip. Even for those who love writing, this trip can be either a surprisingly glorious float on calm, blue seas or a chaoting bumps over potholes along murky lanes.

For a lot of people, however, it is a task.

A task which has to be completed every day

Today I am going to share with you what I do when I experience, what Indians phrase as 'starting trouble'. Sometimes we don't know just how to start. This is when I go for walk and ruminate. Get immersed in memories and the thoughts they produced and feel all that I did when I lived through something that I want to write about. 

What we wish to write about could be anything: a mail complaining about a product, a book review, an obituary or even just a monthly report. To make a good start, we have to find a quiet place for a walk and think of all that we know related to that topic and all that whichmakes it necessary for us to write. And then as the thoughts flow, let them lead you to the conclusions that you would draw from the experience.

Your first draft is ready and all you have to do is to type it down or pen it.