Bradley Schneider Originality A common assumption of many people is that a talented writer is someone who can form original

ideas without derivation or inspiration from society; alone. However, with added perspective, I feel that the definition of originality: The capacity to act or think independently, makes it impossible to be original, because a large portion of the individuals identity can be attributed to society. (Great introduction! These two first sentences really drew me in. I was very interested to keep reading and see what this paper was all about. Great job!) So if originality is to be expected of a writer it would be unreasonable to adhere to such an inaccessible definition of the word original., moreover the weight of a writers creativity shouldnt be tied to the impact of his writing, but rather by his ability to marry the familiar with the unfamiliar, as better said by R.G. Martin Originality, as I am advocating it here, is not mere verbal volatility-it it(is?) a putting together of the familiar into the unfamiliar in some kind of defensible way, some way that makes as much sense as the materials from which it was constructed. , which I feel adequately provides a basis of understanding creative work. I feel the fallacious way in which we understand originality may have adverse effects on those whose educational progress (In respect to creativity.) is centered around this old way of thinking. In this paragraph, it was hard to pin-point exactly where and what the quotation marks were there for. I had trouble figuring out which parts of the sentence were supposed to be quoted. Previously accepted views on originality, as Ive stated, create problems in the course of education of language, and writing; in particular, plagiarism. To explain how plagiarism arises out of the currently dominant view of originality I feel it necessary to share an example of such an assignment that encourages plagiarism presented by R. G. Martin, in which he/she says: The assignment to write 1000 or 5000 words "on" Robert Frost or T. S. Eliot is itself a "plagiarized" assignment (i.e., one totally devoid of originality), and it invites the same in return. The second cure (to designate the copied material as inferior) thus requires the teacher to give enough thought to the assignment so that it cannot be met by copying. I suspect that the only unplagiarized topics are questions which have not been asked or answered before, at least with-in the students' experience. "Robert Frost" is a plagiarized topic, on which thousands have written. A paper that is simply "about" Frost is usually a mere collection of publicly available facts-in the sense in which, as a rule, encyclopedia-entries are themselves epitomes of plagiarism (what we don't want in an encyclopedia is originality!). it is this style of education that creates the dependence on memorization or regurgitation, which, in itself is a subtle act of plagiarism. Im not aware of any comprehensive approach to fix this problem; nonetheless I feel it is a problem worth acknowledging. Within the classroom a typical teacher (I can say most of mine fell into this sort.) will respond to instances of apparent plagiarism in the same way they would for any other method of cheating. The problem with this is that bad paraphrasing, and otherwise unconscious instances of plagiarism could result in discipline for the student. This is unfair since the students curriculum strongly encourages the recycling of ideas to make a point, rather than spending the time to write questions which require thought, and creativity [paraphrased from R.G. Martin]. Martin goes on to compare situations in mathematics where it is rare to find the repetition identicle questions. (example [attributed to Martin]: 5x=92) Another example of a

problem in high-school curriculum for writing is the teachers attempt to prepare a student for standardized tests in using multiple-choice questions, of which none of the work (aside from a vague partial of the material the student has memorized.) is the students. If it is the goal of a teacher/school to facilitate creativity in his/her class then the extra work used into asking unique questions would be required. (I would have liked to see more of an elaboration on the sentence highlighted in blue. And maybe the example could be explained more.) (an example of a question demanding a unique answer for writing (presented by Martin, corresponding to the previous citation.): Does Robert Frosts poetry carry out his Maxim that a poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom?) With the higher education requirements of a teacher, and the responsibility they are placed with in educating a generation of non-drones, it isnt unreasonable to expect thoughtful effort in the curriculums they write. Very good conclusion. Was easily understood. You included your main points and allowed the reader to connect with what you were trying to get across. The issues with the currently accepted construct on originality poses a problem to both the writing communities, and the development of creative writing at a lower educational level. The obsession with putting titles of ownership on ideas may itself contribute to a misunderstanding. People so quickly proclaim their ideas without acknowledging that they are at most building on that idea by asserting their perspective. While people may have their own original and unique views on ideas, the ideas themselves are not new (within the lifetime of the person.) Although its impossible to be certain there are any unknown primal thoughts, it is not unreasonable to postulate that within the constraints of human thought, and language, there are few remaining if any, and to assert otherwise is to stifle the important creativity which is required to unearth these primal things we know nothing about. For progress to be made within our educational system I feel it would be beneficial to divert from our currently accepted understanding of originality. For the sake of flourishing creativity, and, as a result, societal development, our education systems must encourage attainable originality. (Great concluding sentence!)