GÉRARD DE NERVAL FRENCH WRITER AND POET Many...

02 “Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature.”GÉRARD DE NERVAL, FRENCH WRITER AND POET

I t’s not surprising that time-starvedstudents reach for the web to copy oth-er people’s work,but introducing more

creative writing tasks can help them relyon their own skills and avoid the copy-and-paste habit. Here are a few fre-quently asked questions on plagia-rism and how to deal with it answeredby English professor Deepti Nanda...

How would you define the copy-paste syn-drome? The copy-paste syndrome is a sit-uation wherein students tend to rely moreand more on the easily-available digitalcontent. This is a universal problem thathas to be addressed effectively, especial-ly with the rapid adoption of the digitalplatforms. Weber refers to it as theGoogle-Copy-Paste-Syndrome, which ac-cording to him, will drastically affect thequality of scientific publications, lead-ing to a degradation in the quality of life.The expansion of non-verified digitalcontent together with an emerging so-

cial learning ecosystem could result ineven more devastating implications.

Plagiarism continues to be a problemall over the world. What is the solution?The first step is to set aside any moralindignation and ask yourself — whydo I do it? Am I lazy? Or do you thinkplagiarism is the last resort? Ask your-self — do you not have the language or

the skills to research a topic, collateand organise the information, para-phrase it and present it in an appro-priate format or style, in writing orspeech? Once you have identified yourproblem, talk to a teacher about it. Theteacher should then customise the ac-tivity according to your learning needs.

Can you give us an example of how ateacher can play an important role in curb-ing this plagiarising habit? I had a groupof science students who had submittedplagiarised accounts of great scientistsand their discoveries. When I saw this,I changed my methodology and askedthem to present a report based on a sci-ence lesson. I gave them headings andleading questions to elicit sentences.They had to submit one section perweek, and were strictly told, ‘no pla-giarism’. Students realised they couldactually do a good job on their own.

These queries were asked by Bal Bharti School students of Noida.

Creator of copyand paste com-mand in the keyboard,LARRY TESLER, died onFebruary 19. The StanfordUniversity graduate worked forblue-chip firms, including Apple,Amazon and Yahoo. Tesler beganhis Silicon Valley career at pho-tocopying firm Xerox’s Palo AltoResearch Center (Parc) beforebeing recruited by Apple’sfounder, Steve Jobs.

Help! How do I get rid ofcopy/paste syndrome?

OMG

Contagion: When info is as potent& contagious as the virus itself

WHO’s prescription forCovid19 prevention

Even as there are many myths and non-clinical cures doing therounds on social media, the WHO has issued an advisory to guide

people on when to worry & how to take care of themselves

LET’S REVISIT THE FILM THAT HAS A LOT TO SAY ABOUT RUMOURS AND FAKE NEWS

IN THE NEWS FOR...

Contagion’, the 2011 film about a deadly virusoutbreak that spread across the world, becamean instant hit, raking in $135 million world-wide. In the wake of the corona virus outbreak

— first reported from Wuhan, China, on 31 December2019 as per the World Health Organisation — people arerevisiting the flick again. In fact, the movie broke intothe top 10 on the iTunes movie rentals chart on Janu-ary 28. Apparently, many people are turning to the movieto make sense of what’s going on, and to understandhow fake news can spread faster than the virus amidtroublesome times.

Many interpretations of corona

‘PERSPECTIVES ARE WELCOME... THEY HELP IDENTIFY FAKE NEWS’

The movie por-trays a worldwrecked bynot just a

virus, but a whole setof ills that come alongwith it — disorder, so-cietal breakdown, thedifficulties inherentin finding a cure, in-dividuals who refuseto follow rules, peo-ple who selfish-ly protecttheir lovedones overothers. Itall seemsreal todaywith coro-na becominga scare world-wide. It feels likelive reportage.

‘Contagion’, thefilm is horrifying butalso a little comforting

as thes c i e n -tists doeventu-

ally findand re-

lease a vac-cine. Also, though

a lot of people die,most of the world’spopulation managesto survive,” says soci-

ologist Dipankar Gup-ta.

According to Gup-ta, when watching‘Contagion’, what’smost striking isn’t re-ally the central virusitself but the lesson init for us. It teaches uswe should usher inand read multiple in-terpretations (about

the virus and its im-pact) and be wary offake news. Everyevent can be per-ceived in a differentway by different indi-viduals. You shouldnot shut your eyes toit. Rather... read every-thing. It will help youto identify what is nottrue.”

Everyevent can be

perceived differentlyby different individuals.Read every interpreta-tion and then form an

informed opinion

GUEST EDITOR

Why we should consider all interpretations, notbe swayed by FAKE NEWS“A genuine leader is not a searcher forconsensus but a moulder of consensus.”

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Abelief of consensus gives lead-ers the power to not only leadtheir teammates towards thepath of collaboration, but also

gives them the opportunity to learn andbe inspired from one another along theway. The idea of collaboration showsan exchange of new ideas and shar-ing of knowledge that can mediatestudent learning and enhance criti-cal thinking as they work through indifferent collaborative learning en-vironment.

I am a collaborative leader,and I can’tbegin to elaborate on how much I’velearned and grown on my journey of ed-ucation by engaging myself in multiplecollaborative writing tournaments anddebates. Before I discuss my experiences

as a collaborative leader, I would take thisopportunity to further elaborate on theimportance of collaborative writing. Insimple terms, the collaborative writingis an activity that involves two or more

people working together to pro-duce a written document by shar-ing ideologies and interpreta-tions with each other. Mul-tiple perspectives to one ques-tion are welcome in a collab-orative environment.Solutionsare brainstormed among teammembers and facilitated by themanagement. They recognisethe power of a group approach insolving a problem. Moreover, thisactivity helps in building studentconfidence, especially among thosestudents who are lower-level writ-ers. Collaborative writing opens thedoor to more creativity and ideas asbrainstorming begins and the syn-ergy builds. Working together pre-pares students for real world employ-ment where writing in teams may bea routine expectation.PARISHA BHUTANI, GD Goenka World School

Calling...Collaborative writers whowant to write and shine

1 Select your team ofwriters

2 Select a theme

3 Send us your collaborative writing

at toinie175@gmail.com

4 Please send originalcopies only

5 The best team getsfeatured in our pages

➤ When we welcome multiple perspectives,there is no room leftfor fake news — we canthen check citationsand sources, vet thepublisher’s credibilityand also weed out oldarticles that have beenrefurbished.

What IsCollaborative

writing?Collaborative writing

is an activity thatinvolves two or

more people work-ing together to pro-

duce a written docu-ment by sharing ide-ologies and interpre-

tations with eachother. Multiple per-

spectives to one ques-tion are welcome.

PLEDGE TO STOP PLAGIARISM Times NIE invites student

queries on this habit to copypaste. Send your queries at

toi175@gmail.com or log on towww.toistudent.com for more on

this pledge

Sonal Srivastava: How toaddress anger? What gov-erns it: ego or mind?■ Acharya Shivender Nagar:Anger has a domino effect, butsometimes you have to useyour anger with intellect andawareness. Spirituallyevolved people don’t get an-

gry. The mind is the seat ofemotions. When my desires arefulfilled, I will have greed; ifmy desires are not fulfilledthen I will have anger.

The cause of all our angeris unfulfilled desires. There areweak desires and there arestrong desires. For instance, ifyou have a strong desire thatyour son becomes a doctor, youwill be disappointed if he does-n’t, and if you have a weak de-sire, then you will not be af-

fected by the outcome.Desire is the root of all our

emotions. The stronger yourdesire, the more you are afraid

of losing acquisitions that re-sult from that desire. Fearcomes when you fulfil your de-sire. You become fearful; youbecome arrogant. For instance,if you score 50/50 and othersscore 40/50. You will becomearrogant. If you score less thanthe rest, then you feel jealous.It’s because of desires. ■

Acharya Shivender Nagar is founder of the

Gita Foundation

Two men were rid-ing on a train for the firsttime. One of them offeredbanana to his friend andbegan to peel one for him-self. Just then, the trainentered a tunnel. “Haveyou tasted your ba-nana yet?” asked thefirst man, veryalarmed. “No, Ihaven’t,” replied hisfriend. “Well, for heaven’ssake don’t!” said the firstman. “I took one bite andwent blind.”

Two drunks were riding aroller coaster when oneturned to the other andsaid, “We may be makinggood time, but I’ve a feel-ing that we’re on thewrong bus.”

http://www.speakingtree.in

TRUE LOVE IS BLISSFUL

Desire is the rootof all our emotions.The stronger yourdesire, the more youare afraid of losing

YOUR INTELLECT AND AWARENESSONE BITE

WRONG BUS

SACREDSPACE

Infinite Love

As you live deeper in theheart, the mirror getscleaner and cleaner.

Jalaluddin RRumi

✥Love is a longing to

include someone as a partof yourself. It is a possibili-

ty to become more thanwhat you are, by inclusion.Sadhguru JJaggi VVasudev

✥Unarmed truth and uncon-ditional love will have thefinal word in reality. This is

why right, temporarilydefeated, is stronger than

evil triumphant.Martin LLuther KKing, JJr

✥Love recognises no

barriers. It jumps hurdles,leaps fences to arrive at

its destination full of hope. Maya AAngelou

Ezekiel Isaac Malekar

What is love? To loveis to accept, adoptor recognise. Love

should make you happy,joyous, harmonious, andnot miserable. The relationof God to His people is con-ceived as a union markedby love on one side anddemanding a correspon-ding love on the other. Thisreciprocal love of God andpeople is expressed in cate-gories of familial or socialunit, and we should not for-

get love for our country.When you love some-

body, it is just enough to bewith him, even if we don’tsay anything. We also knowthat just being in the pres-ence of someone we love, isenough. You don’t reallyhave to do anything. Godtells us that ‘I love you’ ‘Icare for you’; God is alwayswith us and He loves us.

We all live in six di-mensions of north, east,south, west, up and down,but there is a seventh di-

mension also in the world,the spiritual dimension. Inphysical dimension, wehave to create things, butin the spiritual dimensionwe have to create positiveatmosphere in our homesand in our relationships.

True love demands sac-rifice, mutual sacrifice,happiness and joy. Let usall hope and pray that allof us will only love andproject positive love, sothat truly we will be wor-thy of God’s love. ■

Photo: GETTY IMAGES

Is it safe to receive aletter or a package

from China?

Can regularly rinsing you nose with

saline help prevent infection with the new coronavirus?

Can eating garlic help prevent infection

with the new coronavirus?

Does the new coronavirusaffect older

people, or areyounger people

also susceptible?

Are antibioticseffective in

preventing andtreating the new

coronavirus?

Can pets at homespread the new

coronavirus(2019-nC0V)?

Yes, it is safe. People receivingpackages from China are not atrisk of contracting the new coronavirus.

From previous analysis, weknow coronaviruses do not sur-vive long on objects, such asletters or packages.

No. There is no evidence that regularly rinsing the nose withsaline has protected people frominfection with the new coronavirus.There is some limited evidence thatregularly rinsing the nose withsaline can help people recover morequickly from the common cold.However, regularly rinsing the nosehas not been shown to prevent res-piratory infections.

People of all ages can be infected by thenew coronavirus (nCoV-2019).Older people, and people with pre-exist-ing medical conditions (such as asthma,diabetes, heart disease) appear to bemore vulnerable to becoming severely illwith the virus. WHO advise people of allage to take steps to protect themselvesfrom the virus, for example by followinggood hand hygiene and good respiratoryhygiene.

At present, there is no evidence thatcompanion animals / pets such asdogs or cats can be infected with thenew coronavirus. However, it isalways a good idea to wash yourhands with soap and water after con-tact with pets. This protects youagainst various common bacteriasuch as E. coli and Salmonella thatcan pass between pets and humans.

Garlic is a healthy food thatmay have some antimicrobialproperties. However, there isno evidence from the cur-rent outbreak that eatinggarlic has protected peoplefrom the new coronavirus(2019-nCoV)

No, antibiotics do not work againstviruses, only bacteria.The new coronavirus (2019-nCOV) isa virus and, therefore, antibioticsshould not be used as a means ofprevention or treatment. However, if you are hospitalised forthe 2019-nCoV, you may receiveantibiotics since bacterial co-infec-tion is possible.