Summary Of Something Borrowed By Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell’s “Something Borrowed” is an article in which Gladwell discusses the matter of plagiarism and how it has drastically changed from being considered bad writing manners to a punishable crime. The consensus on plagiarism is that it is never acceptable to copy someone else’s work and that all copying should be punishable. In his article, Gladwell writes about his experience of being plagiarized to bring light to problems with punishing all copying without considering intent.

Plagiarism in today's world can cause someone their career, a single charge of plagiarism can potentially ruin a person's life. In the last thirty years, laws pertaining to intellectual properties have strengthened, redefining plagiarism as a whole. Copyright

She wrote a memoir about her lives work, which was plagiarized by playwright Bryony Lavery and used in a Broadway show called “Frozen”. Gladwell’s work on Lewis was plagiarized as well. His initial reaction was to contact Lavery and let her know that he felt robbed by her, but he admits that he did not feel robbed but rather a little flattered. Gladwell realizes that he did not own the words he claimed were plagiarized, in fact, he traced the words to Gandhi. Gladwell acknowledges that no one owns words, words are free to be used and are free of limits. He argues against the notion that an idea can only come from one original person and is never influenced by others and he argues that words do not belong to their authors. Gladwell wrote “Pretending that these chains of influence and evolution do not exist and that a writer’s words have a virgin birth and eternal life” — is

Gladwell suggests that before any accusation of plagiarism takes place, we take the time to ask, Why was it borrowed? Was it borrowed with the intent to take it as their own or was it borrowed to be transformed into something innovative, improved, or to serve a greater purpose? Gladwell acknowledges that some copying can “go too far” (Gladwell 928), for example when one artist simply replicates someone else's work, Gladwell considers that derivative borrowing. However, Gladwell also believes that being over-protective of someone taking intellectual property, for transformative reasons or not is also not right. In the court of law, when a person is believed to have committed a crime, our justice system takes the person’s intent into consideration before deciding that person’s fate in court. If society continues treating plagiarism as severely as a crime, then its only right to consider intent before potentially ending a