Just Be Yourself

Formulating an opinion is hard. Formulating an opinion that is truly your own: harder. There is a wealth of information and ideas available to writers today, and so the challenge lies not in obtaining the idea, but in resisting the urge to parrot the ideas and opinions of others. As college students we are past the age of narrow subject guides that undoubtedly reflect the views of the instructor, and have evolved to a higher standard of writing. Now we must mean what we say.

Our duty as members of a society that enjoys the freedom to express our own opinions is to do just that. It is simply not fair to the reader or the writer to perpetuate common ideas simply because they are common. If a writer chooses to stray from his or her own opinions for the sake of conventionality, or in an attempt to please the readers (often professors), then how can we measure truth? Who’s to say that what is being written is really meant? The written word holds a great deal of power, and the decision to write something that you do not believe is a flagrant abuse of that power.

The urge to plagiarize another’s words can, on occasion, be very appealing, but the urge to plagiarize an idea holds much greater influence over writers. It would be an easy thing indeed to replicate the ideas of friends, family, or total strangers en lieu of taking the time and effort formulate one’s own thoughts, but this is a temptation that we as writers must resist. It is true that expressing something that you truly believe in can be difficult, but it is a feat that, if accomplished, will yield incomparable results. Not only will the ability of the writer increase, but the credibility of the writer will remain spotless before the writing world.