Brain Contour

I could not believe my eyes to read in this week’s issue of the South Dakota State University (SDSU) Collegian newspaper that last week’s plagiarism incident was only considered a mere mistake. I was told by the Collegian editor-in-chief, Ms. Poppinga, in one of our email exchanges last week that “we will take these concerns very seriously and will do what we feel is appropriate to rectify the situation.” I believe the necessary action taken this week is the one called “very seriously.” The “appropriate action” taken to rectify the BLUNDER was to publish a correction note in this week’s issue. It says:

SDSU Collegian

Three years of writing for the SDSU Collegian Newspaper is already an achievement for me as an amateur writer. But the sparkle each article brought to my eyes was not all-bright every time. The months of making stories and publishing them on paper and online rendered more frowns than smiles – more what-ifs than yes-I-can. I may not be a real newbie to writing columns (with credits to Cebu’s Sun-Star Weekend Magazine), but catering to a different set of readers other than Filipinos, almost always on release day, a new Collegian copy on the table at the basement of Wecota hallwould send shivers down my spine. The audience here is varied, so varied that their opinions posted in response to my articles online could easily signal a raising of the white flag on my part. Majority of the comments criticized (not my way of writing, by the way) my viewpoints about life and living in which my columns usually revolved.

My inclinations to writing religious articles and sharing spiritual miracles had awakened the unbelievers in many ways than one. For countless times the judgments posted were too personal. But I had devised a strategy to not read them verbatim so as to lessen the hurt. The less painful and the few uplifting comments were the needed push to keep all my articles coming each and every week. The avid readers of my columns may have already painted the story of my life, as articles tackled the bits and pieces of my existence and those around me — everything shaped in words, English words, a Filipino, me, hoped to convey.