SAY NO TO PLAGIARISM

As most people know, writing is one out of million other things I enjoy to do, and one of a few things I take seriously. However, I only have two books on creative writing (of course I’ve read more than that).
Since a friend asked to borrow the only one I have with me now, I took it out of the shelves and reread it again since last night. Personally I don’t think it was great, but last night I thought it was good, esp. the chapter on metaphors, the subject I like the most.
HOWEVER….. five minutes ago, as I reread some files on my computer in the ‘creative writing’ folder, I came across an old document that my formed boss downloaded for me, called OWL Writing Guidance from Purdue University Online Writing Lab. And guess what… I found out that the metaphor chapter I just read in the book was just exactly a translated version of a part of that writing guidance! Not only the definition, even down to the sentence examples!
As I furiously looked for any citation or reference which would take off my offence and objection towards what I suspected as plagiarism, I felt my heart breaking cos there was none!
What makes it outrageous, the writer is one of the famous ones in
Indonesia, won a prestigious prize and was awarded as the best literary writer by a well-known magazine several years ago, and is teaching creative writing in a learning center!
I TRULY HOPE that he just forgot to put the citation/reference, and did not omit it intentionally! SAY NO TO PLAGIARISM!

SHORT ARDENT AFFAIR

It was love at the first sight.
He was so cute and sweet, and he returned my affection whole-heartedly. He was crazy of my gentle strokes, and I could not stop thinking of him. I did my best to make him happy, and I think I did, to some extent.
But then I had to say goodbye and leave him. It was so ironic—I who loved him so much could not stay to be there for him, and those who could stay didn’t know how to love him as much as I did, and didn’t care too much of how he was feeling either.
And so our love affair lasted only for three days. They said I was responsible for his broken heart which was fatal. They implied that it was my too much love that killed him. But I could accuse back that it was their lacking of love which could not make him survive.
Well, he’s gone now. And these tears won’t make him back. He was fragile and defenseless anyway, and maybe it was for his own good that every suffering he’d felt was taken away so quickly, along with his short life.
Nevertheless, I still wish he were still there, getting bigger, barking louder, wiggling his tail upon seeing me, licking my toes, or climbing into my lap to be cuddled. And I promised I would love him more.