The Johnsonian

Issue date: 11/1/06 Section: Opinion

First I would like to thank Jeff for his comments. After read¬ing your letter to the editor, I'm sure many individuals surfed TheJohnsonian.com (shameless plug) for my articles, just to see what you were talking about. Like you, I'm sure some hated them and I'm sure others liked them. Nonetheless, more people have now read my material. You can't buy publicity like that.

Second, I'm not sure if I should be honored that the sec¬ond letter to the editor published this semester was concerning me, or if I should be concerned that no one at Winthrop has nothing to say about anything else (even the abortion insert a few weeks back.)

Third, I would like to believe I am a fairly decent writer for quite a few reasons. There are two levels of confirma¬tion articles go through at The Johnsonian. Matt Montgomery, the opinion/spin editor, obviously believes my articles are good enough to be published. And I'm sure that the editor-in-chief, Jeremy Harriot, would put a stop to something if he deemed it unfit to be run. In fact, I wrote a few articles last semester that were approved by two com¬pletely different people.

Fourth, if Jeff (or anyone else for that fact) would have actu¬ally read my article on the new payment options, you would notice that the comment made about pine needles was, and to quote myself, "a little off subject." So yes, I did get off topic and yes, I let you know that I was getting off topic and if you would have read carefully, you would have known that.

Fifth, I do realize that col¬lege is hard. I fully believe that each and every student here at Winthrop is bright enough and more than capable to do any assignment that is thrown their way. I, along with everyone else here, was accepted to Winthrop and that means we're all bright enough to complete our work. Again, if you would have read my article, you would have gath¬ered that my argument was about excessive amounts of work, not that college is hard, which was your point.

Sixth, your argument about my petition is not relevant to anything I have written here at The Johnsonian. In fact, that has a name and it's a "red herring" fallacy. In case you don't know what that is, a red herring fal¬lacy means you are attacking an issue by using irrelevant facts or arguments as a distraction. I hate to tell you this, but you should have learned that in Writing 101, Writing 102 and Speech 201. You can even find a list of com¬mon fallacies in the writing cen¬ter, located on the second floor of Bancroft. I suggest you stop by.

Oh, and seventh, I didn't realize that every seventh grade teenager made the argument that there was an excessive amount of work in college. What do seventh graders have to do with college?

Finally I would like to point out that all of my articles have been published in the opinion section of this newspaper and just like any other section of this paper, you have the option to read it or skip it, plain and simple.

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