Friday, 23 April 2021

Happy (World Book & Copyright Day + English Language Day)

23rd April is the death day of William Shakespeare and is considered to be his Birthday also as exactly the birthday was not recorded… But he was born in April… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare

https://guides.nyu.edu/shakespeare-bday

https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/shakespedia/william-shakespeare/when-was-shakespeare-born/

The same day coincides with the birth & death days of other prominent authors also… Thus, it is decided by the UNESCO to celebrate World Book & Copyright Day on April 23rd every year.

From Palm leaf & ink to the paper & pen, printing, e-books, it has taken several shapes as a medium of providing the intellectual content over the years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book

Normally, we are in an apprehension that the books are meant to be read or studied… Just read few lines about ‘reading’…. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading. But normally, we forget the important aspect of writing… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writing

Ideally, both reading & writing should go hand in hand… As the reading improves our knowledge, writing improves our cognitive skills and enhances our creativity & innovative ideas… Writing a notes, journal/diary, an article, a book, poetry, prose or anything useful is the best habit to inculcate… It is a must for the researchers… It always forces you to continually improve your thought process. If we practice to be a critical reader, we can become a good writer… While reading, understand the concepts from the writer’s point of view… Just put yourself in the author’s shoes to identify the skills of writing…

In my view, reading is nothing but the process in which the writer in us critically follows the writer of the book to ignite new thoughts in our minds… the whole process adds value to us… As a writer, we should also follow the same… we should add value to the readers… In this reading & writing process, we should not make use of the others' ideas or texts… Using others’ ideas & texts without giving due credit to the author is called plagiarism… As the reading & writing are very important aspects of research, all the researchers should be careful to avoid plagiarism… To protect the text & ideas, copyrights act is enacted… Plagiarism is a punishable offence…  If we learn the art of critically reading the manuscripts & books, we will automatically get new ideas to contribute to the world… This is how we should nurture the creativity & innovation…

I have to bring one more perspective of looking at reading a book or manuscript, the moment we are reading a book, we will get confined to the thought process of that author if we are blindly following it… That’s why we should have an open & critical mind while reading so that we will have a sufficient scope for the new thoughts to bud… We should identify the thin line between getting into the author’s shoes & getting carried away by the author’s thought process… That line brings the scope for new thoughts… Let us explore those budding thoughts and make them blossom into a book or manuscript or a blog or a diary at least…

Most of the people still prefer to read the books in the physical form only… I want to discuss here about the advantages of e-books, audiobooks, though they have also got some pros & cons…

Advantages of e-books

Ø  Readers can customize the settings of the font, colour, background etc., to their comfort levels…

Ø  Very easy to share digitally

Ø  Can take a print anytime

Ø  Can save huge volumes in a smart device & carry & read anytime

Ø  No external lighting is required

Ø  Preservation is not a problem

Ø  Searching is very easy

Ø  Can highlight & take a note simultaneously

Ø  It is easy to use the dictionary or translator or any other useful digital application on the digital content…

Ø  It can be changed to other digital formats also as per convenience

Ø  The list goes on….

Ø  The audiobooks are very useful for those who have the problems in reading… They can get the knowledge by listening to the audiobooks.

Coming to English, English is the only language in the world in which most of the intellectual information is shared in terms of books, manuscripts, research papers, journals etc., Thus, we need to master this language a lot… Most of the Asian researchers face the problems in publishing due to the problems with their English language skills… Let us take the English Day (today) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UN_English_Language_Day )as the opportunity to focus on our reading & writing skills of English & continually improve on it…

Let us make a habit of reading & writing books in English… All the Best…

I just recall the quote from William Shakespeare, “All the world’s a stage and all men and women are merely players”, which I had used in my blog post Be an 'Actor' of 'Emotions'.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Good

Dr. Rupa Z. Gupta said...

Wow, great.
Thanks

Unknown said...

World book day is also known as world book and copyright day.
A Book ... Will offers....
W....Wonderful
O....Opportunities to the
R....Readers to
L....Learn..
D....Define and
B....Boost their career and tries to
O....Overcome the obstacles and guides to
O....Optimise their
K... Knowledge... and Facilities to
D... Design a right path for
A... Achieving
Y... Your " readers" ambitions....

" WBCR day" is a combination of tangible and intangible...copyright is one of the intellectual property rights and it is an intangible asset ( a person cannot see,touch and feel).. where has "Book" is physical and tangible ( a person can see, touch and feel)..
The ideas of the author which are in.... intangible nature gave birth by using the language or words and writes a book....
On the same day itself v celebrate the world famous language day... i.e., English language day...
(Tangible + intangible + Language)..
Sir... U have rightly pointed how the reader behaves while he/ she is reading a book... Yes... The reader itself will gets into the shoes of the author and feels they r in character.. and enjoys the story... R the theme of the author...like wt v r doing while reading ur blog's...
Thank you sir...

ResearchSubbu said...

Thank u for sharing a well written Acronym and wonderful explanation...

Dr.SARITHA MIDIDODDI said...

Best and excellent information subbusir

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