Stealing the ideas of others is a very common practice these days. In other words, it is also called plagiarism. Plagiarism is about reproducing other writers’ academic or literary work. I often go through articles and essays in newspapers and as well as on social media that contain material stolen from others’ work.
This practice is even common among the so-called teachers teaching in different universities. Being a student, I often see majority of our teachers in university rely on online materials. What they send us in our WhatsApp group is that they download materials from different websites and make minor changes in the downloaded materials.
However, on the contrary, there are very few teachers who give references on different topics & try to take critical approache while teaching certain subjects. The educated class needs to carry out research without stealing ideas or copying written materials of others.
Sharing our own thoughts with the readers in our own words will have a deep-rooted effect on them. If we smear our own writings with readymade notes or passages written by others, it will undermine our credibility.
Lady Margurite Gardiner has rightly said: “Borrowed thoughts, like borrowed money, only show the poverty of the borrower.”
