I think there should be a serious research done on the influence of ‘cut and paste’ command in the realms of academics in particular and the society in general. This ubiquitous command has given every individual the ability to plagiarise at the click of a mouse. The morality of this issue would depend upon which side of the fence one belongs to – taken from a different and rather liberal perspective, plagiarism makes for a very effective system for dissemination of information! On a more serious note, let’s consider this – without the facility of ‘cut and paste’, an individual would mandatorily need to read through and copy the text/synopsis/what-have-you. This would atleast ensure that he ( or she) reads what is being plagiarised and perhaps even understand some part of it. As a freelance editor, I frequently get manuscripts which are so blatantly borrowed from the net that the new owner does not even bother to get the numbers/genders/timelines in consonance with the rest of his text. In a similar vein, my children ‘research’ their projects on the net – and produce fabulous looking reports that does their father proud. Atleast they don’t have the pretensions or snobbery of claiming to have submitted an original document ! So, is this ‘cut and paste’ making us more knowledgeable by more effective dissemination of knowledge or is it ‘dumbing down’ our intellect by reducing our ability of original thinking ? Maybe I can prevail upon my daughter’s class teacher to hold a debate on the topic.