I wonder what intelligent forces hovered around their heads. Their originality and spirituality were genuine. I always love it when I read about the persistence and the spirit behind their discoveries and inventions.  Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new. I listen to stories of the past generations, which are the bone of contention here, with keen interest; Ghana’s Kwaw Ansah’s Good Old Days stress the point, as if there were no such thing as vices, wars and woes. The truth is that there existed woes and wars, but in comparably definite proportion: since, as someone suggests, there were not enough noises to disturb all the good forces of nature, and a minimum pollution to interfere with nature’s originality. Humans ate bread prepared from cereal harvested directly from the field. The animals from which they acquired most of the protein fed from the original feed nature provided.

Humans’ thought appeared to be more focused and more detailed, comparable with computations by modern sophisticated machines. Most of their philosophies are still valid. People, like the internet marketers, seem to put keen interest or place more emphasis on the century, or two, year old source of information which provided the knowledge for whatever they have come by.  Sometimes I am moved to conjecture that the forces which served as sources of their thoughts were closer around their heads. Contrary to this statement may be the reason behind decrease in human conscience; as a result of which, for example, the so-called modern civilised woman exercise her right to practice how to go naked on the street. In fact most of the things making up the status quo make many people feel great nostalgia for the status quo ante even of early this century and beyond.

One of the fascinating stories I have listened to about the primitive or uncivilised human being have been how an Ashanti man studied weaving by watching a certain breed of spider weave its cobweb.  This knowledge has been the pillar behind the costly and valuable Ashanti Kente cloth.

The fact is that any good information or knowledge is never completely abandoned by the generations to come; either it can hold enough water to stand the test of time or it would provide a good basis of something important. So whatever good thing your hand finds to do do it with all your might, all your power and all your spirit, this seems to be the secret behind every good discovery, knowledge, philosophy or any valuable thing ever produced by the human mind and wisdom. Value and make good use of this simple precept and peace will never forsake you and your name.  

    When we connected ourselves to a machine, we were embedded in its skin, and synapses we all became, controlling nothing, just passing, in currents and waves, sensations from hand to forehead. We feed the beast with knowledge and the worst kind of all, for it is not empty words we record but instead we construct windows on the outer most walls of our souls, exposing our wounds, and leaving us susceptible to conformity.

        Instead of physically visiting one another, which consists of will power, time, money, and love, we have taken friendship, turned it into a drug, and are now injecting ourselves in lethal doses. When I was younger an old wise man told me, ” if you can lift half the fingers of one hand to count your true friends, you are a lucky man”, he still tells me that same quote, and half the fingers of a hand is still the consensus.

   Maintaining a friendship is hard, it is almost as hard as maintaining a marriage, but without the manipulation or sex, which are both one in the same, in marriage language. Friends are there when you need them, and when gone, missed. Friends tell us what we need to hear, not what we want to hear. Friends are there when your broke and offer to pay when you have wealth, but never use your status as a plus. They warn you of dangers, protect your babies from strangers, calls your wife a sister, they are more than misses and misters they are uncles and aunts. Friends stick around, to save you from yourself, slap you when you need a punch, and punch you when you should be hung. Cuts you off early, but lets you in late, a friend does not hate, will never leave you dropped, or call the cops. A friend is a friend even when they are gone.

It is a great honor to be called a friend, but it was not an overnight decision that was made, for my few friends contain much character, enough character to share with fifty men. I have a friend that I have known since second grade, and I know more of him, than the people I see daily, speak to constantly, converse with consistently, and I rarely see my friend. Character, truth, respect, modesty, and patience are of the greatest qualities that I have found in my friends and of these qualities, none are easy to notice on Facebook. The Social Networking revolution has made us immune to human contact and the importance of it, such human interactions as noticing facial expressions, laughter, humor, tactfulness, respect, body language, voice expression, public speaking, touching, hugging, handshakes, a pat on the back, visual cues, emotional cues, speaking cues. Many of these important attributes to physical interaction are hard to understand, so please let me explain further.

   Expressing oneself is important, but  just like everything else we learn growing up, effective communication takes times and practice. Shy people are scared to speak in front of others, but shyness is only fueled by an insecurity that one may embarrass oneself, but through practice and exposure the insecurity will slowly vanish. So, one that has great one-liners on line, may not even be able to finish a sentence without studdering in person. A woman that seems sweet and nice online may not be so sweet and nice in person. We forget that talk is only half of the conversation, and since most talk is text, we are getting only understanding eachother in parts and fractions. True communication only happens by looking another in the the eyes, listening to anothers voice, speaking in turn, and observing all bodily movements and facial expressions. In this way we develop our own unique way of expressing ourselves, but online you only have the choice between colored text and bold letters. So much is lost in text that many do not notice when people are being nice or sarcastic, we miss the punch line in jokes and do not notice the hateful expressions. 

     Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, has declared a war on privacy, and with his company soon to be joining the email business I would not recommend the use of emailing Facebook, with a statement like that. I did a little research and just through the information provided by the terms and policies of facebook I have deduced………

……………………that Facebook is basically selling all of our information.

        Information, our information, which they have copyrights of, to everyone else so that they can directly market products and services to you. Facebook is just a big scheme to make money from our wants and needs, mostly wants. You can test it out by expressing yourself on Facebook, liking this and that, and then constantly seeing ads of your favorite stores and shows, ones of which you expressed interest in earlier. Facebook resets their settings every so often which sets your page back to its default settings, that is the war on privacy, and now they are connecting with some of the biggest corporations in the world. Why? Because on Facebook people take surveys, express likes and dislikes, play games, chat, and constantly visit which means companies do not have to pay to market to you. Facebook is also linking up to new software devices that are constantly reading your information and scanning your pictures, for copyrights of your stuff, then turning around and selling your personal information for ad slogans, and direct advertising that comes right to your homepage browser. It is like using a bunch of tiny mice, running on wheels to generate electricity, if you get enough it will work. 

    The Social Network is just another marketing and advertising ploy. Companies get smarter and smarter because the smartest thing they can do is fool all of us into telling them exactly what we want, exactly what we desire, exactly what we hate. The advertising world is changing and the biggest concern is not that we are being deceived into telling our wants and desires to strangers, but my biggest concern is that one day we will be told what we want and what we desire. Inadvertently we will be unaware that we have lost our own senses of taste and only thirst for the wants that we are told, the wants of the masses. 

   The Social Network lets you be who you want. What happen to being happy being yourself? The Social Networks lets you meet new and interesting people, who are probably trying to be someone else too. There is too many ifs and maybes in the social network, and attributes such as honesty and humility hold no weight anymore, for a bit of lying or vanity is acceptable. Be careful if your being original, for those words may be stolen, legally acquired, and used for a song or an ad, who knows. Do not lose yourself to the addictions that promise relief from other restraints, for we all wish to be cool, popular, envied, and interesting, but the fact of the matter is, is that we are not all cool, we are not all suave. Trying to be people we are not is going to leave us confused and frustrated, for attempting to be someone else will never be accomplished, and the original being we are is buried deep inside fighting for air, struggling to breathe. We can portray something we are not, but one day we will have to get close to someone else and let them see us for who we really are. What then? 

Be yourself, for no one else can be a better you, than you.

Practice playing yourself

Do not fall for the wishes of everyone else

For what one wishes another spits out

Keep your originality all for yourself

Let it seep out slowly and breathe life into your head

For words constructively said build relationships

Not for pretend

Words mend hearts 

Words humble vanity

But a text can neither be felt or expressed

For a smile is the best friend of a compliment

And a tear expresses sadness far better than a colon and parenthesis

The best way to feed the rich

Is to give them pieces of yourself

Leaving you broke

And In comes corporation selling you back your soul

Selling you crutches to accompany your broken leg

A cast for your wits and stroller for your restraints

Cuddle with your ball and chain they say

For the ball is your head and the chain is the leash around your neck

Tell me what to sell you they say

And you type type type type away

This is what I told her:

Bitch please. I don’t care about being like you and your little hoes. I’m not gonna be one of you air headed botches with a head full of tracks that change every week, buying clothes and shoes I see in magazines just to be cool. I will never lose sense of who I am and become a part of an ugly cliche of faceless soulless bitches.

So if you don’t like my hair and the way I dress, then you can suck it. I’m not trying to be apart of the stereotypical crowd of air-headed prom queens. So fuck you. And FUCK BEING NORMAL.
My Own Reality
One day while relaxing…

Them: (walking up) Are you high or stoned or something? Do you have ADHD? Me: Wat the… No! Why would you ask? Them: It just…why do you act the way you do? Me: (laughing hard) Because… I can. It’s who I am. Them: You don’t act like a normal person. Me: For me this is normal. Them: (scoffing) Then you need to get back to the real  world Me: …This is MY real world. Every on has their own reality. Them: That’s not possible. Me: It is if you’re smart enough to realize it. But it  doesn’t matter, I’m out of here. Them: Whatever you say… Me: Oh and before I go… Them: What..? Me: Make sure you shove your pompous self-righteous opinion up your ass.

Free to Be…
Free to be an individual, to be who I am inside Free to claim my own heart.Free not to hide. I’m free to be who I am and break the mold. Free to be different for the world to behold Free to be…Me.

Introduction

Plagiarism is unethical act that has found its way into the academic and research fields that needs to be avoided. This paper tries to look at the effects of plagiarism on oneself and in the academic field as a whole. It discuses anti-plagiarism policy as implemented by U.S.A and U.K. It also explains the penalties imposed on individual practicing this unconscionable act. It gives my opinion in regard to the penalties before concluding.

Plagiarism in the education discipline can be defined as the act of copying, paraphrasing, close presentation and purloining others’ ideas, publications without giving due credit to the original authors (Carroll and Appleto 35). The term plagiarism originated from a Latin word ‘plagiarius’ meaning stealing or kidnapping (Alexander 27). This is an infringement of the original author’s right of ownership by claiming to be the first owner of the idea. With the extensive use of the internet in the research, it has become a common practice for some students who have developed a habit of copying and pasting others’ works then claim to have produced a novel paper/assignment. Plagiarism clearly indicates the iniquity of deception and anybody who practices it will be unable to produce original products even at his/her work place. (S)He will depend on copying others’ ideas and in that effect; he harms his own reputation and the original owner of the idea. Plagiarism prevents individuals from acquiring intended information or concepts. This is because it hinders them from learning or practicing what they have been taught hence institution end up producing professional quacks. It is for these reasons that U.S.A and U.K academic institutions imposed Anti-plagiarism Policy to deal with plagiarists.

The anti- plagiarism policy that was adopted in U.S.A and U.K clearly gives a guideline on what should be done to wave out this menace. They have developed systems to check either deliberate plagiarism or just minor errors. This helps them to know what action to take depending on the degree of plagiarism. Moreover, the institutions are advised to take human rights Acts into consideration when handling such cases (Alexander 51).However, Carroll and Appleto (11) suggest that there should be structures, procedures and technological formula of implementing this anti-plagiarism policy. They argue that there should be consistent teaching approach of helping students on knowing how to avoid this fraudulent act, rather than seeing punishment as the only solution. Secondly, the institutions were given the mandate of punishing the culprits within the institution. This was to make the institutions more involved in dealing with this menace. Upon admission, the entire students are always informed on the consequences and penalties of such acts. Anti-plagiarism Policy directs all the academic institutions to work together in improving and upholding the academic integrity.

To avoid plagiarism, it is mandatory that every author must be given credit for their works by properly citing them in every phrase, idea or thought depicted from their works (Gibaldi 13). The citation and referencing done must also meet the conventions standard (Alexander 23), and the entire college students must be well acquainted with the citation styles. Without referencing of copied work, the paper is considered as plagiarized, and it has penalties attached to it.

Although some actions are stipulated in the anti-plagiarism policy, some are shared by most academic institutions. The penalties range from getting lower grades to expulsion (Clarke 97). Most U.S.A and U.K academic institutions have developed a mode of online plagiarism check, and students are always advised to submit their assignments online which are then run online to check any form of plagiarism.  In the end, the penalties may vary depending with the degree of plagiarism. Minimal level may lead to getting lower grades or even fail on that assignment. Mild level of plagiarism may lead to fail on that course. Whenever a student forwards copied or a very closely related work to the known original copy, it is considered as a serious plagiarism. She/he may either be suspended or even expelled from the institution. At the research and doctorate level, plagiarism has more severe penalties. Plagiarists may be suspended or terminated. This would results to integrity and credibility loss in his/her area of research. Plagiarism is a crime that may lead to evocation of the degree or any award (Clarke 110).

Plagiarism is a vile act that needs to be avoided at any level especially in the academic field. It shows dishonesty, lack of innovation and creativity capability. It takes a lot of work and dedication to do research and to produce an original paper, and anybody who copies other peoples’ work without acknowledging their efforts needs to be punished. Although the opinion or argument might be same, it would be professionally or morally right to put it in different language or perspective without necessarily copying others’ work. The aforementioned penalties are highly justifiable especially after investigations. An individual must learn to give honor and accreditation where it is worth or face the consequences of his/her wrongful act.

In conclusion, it is important to note that plagiarism is a serious offence. Every student who wants to thrive in the academic area should do thorough research, giving recognition to previous authors who have helped him in gathering the information. Plagiarism is not only harmful to other authors, but also on oneself and should be highly discouraged.

Cover via Amazon

Works Cited

Alexander, Lindey. Plagiarism and Originality. Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2008.20-55. Print.

Clarke, Richard “Plagiarism by Academics: More Complex than it seems.” Association for Information Systems 60.5 (2010): 91-12. Print.

Carroll,James and Appleto Learner. Oxford Brookes University. Plagiarism: A Good Practice Guide. Oxford: Joint Information Systems Committee, 2010. Print.

Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 2009. Print.

        If you are like me, you must admit that, at one point in your life, you came across a word, a line, a verse or a whole chapter while reading in your holly book, that you didn’t feel so comfortable about in the best case scenario, if not found yourself in disbelief altogether. In fact there is no longer a secret that there are 12 versions of so called Holly Books on which is written BIBLE as a title, with major differences in meanings and implications, to the extent that to an orphan who had not had the privilege to be shown “the right path” by his family, having difficulties in comprehending which one is right, would seem obvious that, since each of them claims to be right while the truth is only ONE, all those 12 versions are false, they no longer represent the word of God, and he will dismiss or discard them altogether.

          Unless you believe that inconsistency and inconstancy are properties compatible with God, you would expect that the commandments given in Deuteronomy chapter 6 verses 4, 13, and 14, that God is ONE, the Only One who should be served and worshiped and not to ascribe partners onto HIM are still standing and should be obeyed. In these circumstances no mortal would have any expectations of power and influence over fellow humans. So the only “solution” for this one way road was to modify the words of God and invoke the idea of Trinity, which, by the way, was not found in the oldest manuscripts recently found. Having had the sins already forgiven by the alleged crossing of Christ, and a Holy Spirit to be bestowed upon, the mortal eager for power and influence found his way to do just that, influence and command obedience. Of course, the lack of fear of the consequences of his deeds had to come from the deceiving pretense and promise of Satan that if enough worshipers would reunite their efforts, they would rule the Universe together, so God’s commandments won’t have to be followed any way.

           The metaphorical Caesar put on the lips of the so called God incarnated in a human, would reinforce the obligation of paying taxes to those who make the law. I am sure you thought about the steps of how corruption has spread on the world too, but let me give you the good news, if you were not certain or you could not find the words to express what you believe is reality, know that this corruption process is exposed in the last word of God. And this time HE swore that HE HIMSELF will make sure that HIS words are preserved and none will be able to mingle with the Koran. So, no matter how twisted some Muslims are, you don’t have to judge the Islam by the Muslims but by the Holly Book called Koran and the deeds, message and teachings of the very mortal, chosen prophet, Mohamed, peace and prayers be upon him, and know that none can take the sins of others upon himself nor the merits of others, otherwise we wouldn’t have been given the freedom of choice.

           The Creator gave each of us knowledge and an individual mind, heart and soul, to adequately analyze, interpret and take our own decisions. No matter how many around you voice their opinion, as long you are convinced, the merit or the blame for that decision is yours. Such applies in creativity. The many facets presented by a problem can be originally combined by associating two old ideas together and present it as a new concept in your own words; then people get to know your concept. So to whom do you owe the copyrights? Especially if you translate into another language the final product, never forgetting to mention the “better expressed” source, you are to be the proud parent of your brain-child.  In my opinion it is nothing wrong if, when affiliate option is available, you give your own affiliate codes to the mentioned finite product and make them part of your presentation.  This is all what creativity is about, in any form of expression.

The Concept of Originality Explored – Well, A Little, Anyway.

What has been is what will be,

and what has been done is what will be done;

there is nothing new under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1 v 9)

I once heard a teacher say this when I was at primary (elementary) school. She was talking to another teacher and I wasn’t really listening (as well I shouldn’t have been) but this unusual phrase leaped out at me. I didn’t understand what it meant, so later on I asked another teacher. She told me that it meant there were no entirely new and original ideas any more – that everything has happened before, that history repeats itself and that every idea has its basis in another idea and so can not be considered original. I suppose it was a very accurate description of what the statement meant, but is it actually true? Are there really no more truly original ideas to be had that have not been had before? No more inventions that that aren’t merely improvements on someone else’s invention, who probably first got the idea from… I’m sure you get my drift. So this article is really two-pronged – firstly, is it true that there is nothing new under the sun and secondly, if so, how does this affect writers? It’s a bit of an exploration, a musing if you will, on the concept of originality.

Over the years, I’ve had cause to use this statement of there being nothing new under the sun, myself – upon hearing of events and incidents that have gone on to have some kind of historical importance, such as the destruction of the Berlin Wall and other incidences of countries moving away from communism or dictatorships towards democracy and freedom, for example, or of hearing of terrible crimes and injustices that have been committed, or of reading stories and watching movies where the storyline and plot seem all too familiar. I remember years ago, having to write a college assignment on “Inspiration”. In the course of my research, I happened to read a book, “Teach Yourself Screenwriting” by Raymond Frensham. In it, he said that there were only eight basic stories upon which all other stories were based. A list of them follows:

• Achilles – the fatal flaw
• Candide – the innocent abroad
• Cinderella – the dream come true
• Circe – the chase or the spider and the fly
• Faust – the debt that must be repaid
• Orpheus – the gift taken away
• Romeo and Juliet – boy meets girl.
• Tristan and Isolde – the love triangle, eternal or otherwise

This struck a chord with me as it resonated strongly with the many thoughts I had had over the years all based on that one simple quote and so I found myself asking again – is it true that there’s nothing new under the sun?

I’m not a philosopher; I’m not even a great intellectual although I suppose I’m smart enough in my own way; but I can’t help thinking that the answer to that question is no. In my opinion there ARE some things new under the sun, although I think it all depends on how far down the line you want to go with the concept of originality.

You see, I think the Internet is something new under the sun, which has been brought about with the development of new technology, although I’m aware that someone else might argue that communication (which is what the Internet is a method of) is not new and that technology is nothing new, only something improved. How far do you want to go? Are the kinds of businesses that the Internet is responsible for developing new? – MySpace, FaceBook and Google, for example. Many people will have sat at home in front of their PC and said, “I wish I’d thought of that.” Or, when trying to find a new idea for a business, ended up saying, “Nah, it’s already been done.” Does that mean that these are original ideas? I don’t know if there’s an answer to that. I like to think that they are original because it just seems too depressing to think otherwise – that no matter what you do, what you write or what you invent, you may be accused of some form of plagiarism or copyright infringement. It could put people off even trying and then where would we be? Now that I’m a writer (of sorts) I find the concept of originality even more intriguing.

To find out how this concept of the importance of originality could affect writers, let’s try and put this idea in some kind of perspective – how does one go about writing an article on, say, the effects of anti-depressants on the nervous system, if one is only a writer and not a scientist? The truly original way to do this would be to develop your own drug using a mixture of chemicals that has never been put together before, or even better, discover previously unknown chemicals, and run your own trials, using your own research to write the article. Otherwise, as a writer, you have to read someone else’s research and then incorporate their ideas into your article, under the fair use terms and giving them due credit to avoid charges of plagiarism.

As a writer, this is something I wrestle with when assignment guidelines ask for an original piece of writing on a certain subject. How original can it be, when it is a subject I have no personal knowledge of and have to go away and research it? Does the fact that I have rewritten or rephrased the information in a different way mean that it is now an original piece, even though it still plainly uses someone else’s work? Does it become original simply because I incorporate my own point of view of the research I have used? I don’t know. I don’t even know if these questions are actually important – I’m just asking them because they are the things that I muse on sometimes when I am trying to write something original. Let’s face it, the whole thing about research is that someone else has to have already done it or written about it for you to be able to research it, unless of course, as mentioned before, you carry out your own social or scientific or whatever studies and use your own information.

I’m going to stop now because I feel as if I am about to branch out into some kind of metaphysics that might just make my head explode. I didn’t write this article because I expected clear answers from other writers, although I would be fascinated to read other views on the nature of originality, I wrote it because I found the “vicious circle” aspect of the concept an interesting one to try to put down on paper. I’m not trying to convince people that I’m right about the Internet being something original. This article isn’t an argument, it’s just my thoughts and I’ve enjoyed sorting them out and writing them down. It’s been helpful and it’s encouraged me to take this line of inquiry further – to read what others think of the concept of originality. If nothing else, I hope this piece has given you something to think about too. Just don’t make your head explode!

It also depends on the societies, by an individual himself.
We can also see cultures depend on the geographic position of countries. We can see this occurring especially between India and Sri Lanka.

Language and Literature

In most Asian countries, there exist languages coming from one or two “home” languages. Like in East Asia, we see the languages spoken in Indonesia, Philippines, Korea, Singapore, etc. have similar scripts.

Religion

Religions existing in south Asia include: Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism , etc.

Food

The food found in south Asia is very ethnic and traditional types of food can be found everywhere. From those sweet and sour dishes in China to the chaat in India.

In Europe and the Western countries, we see some difference based on taste and the preparations. They include pastas from Italy to those scrumptious puddings and those delicious bagels found in America.

As we can see, cultures stand the background of any county. The origin of a country lies in its traditions and customs. Every country is unique by its language, religion, food and even the way of life.