MIRI: Sixty students from 17 secondary schools were taught essay writing techniques and the proper way of doing citations at Curtin University here on Saturday.
The one-day workshop formed part of the 7th edition of the Sarawak Local Content Competition.
The students were from here, Marudi, Subis, Bekenu and Batu Niah.
It was the first time students from Marudi participated in this annual competition, which was organised by Pustaka Miri and Curtin University Sarawak.
Head of Curtin’s School of Continuing Studies, Bibi Aminah Abdul Ghani, said the workshop represented an ideal platform for the students to learn everything about writing through two-way interactions with Curtin’s lecturers
“Given such a great opportunity, we found the students to be very enthusiastic and eager to ask questions regarding details that they were not very sure of. That’s the right attitude in learning.”
The competition started in 2008 and its primary aim is to encourage local students to learn the correct and proper techniques of locating and gathering information in order to create complete, comprehensive, original, and interesting project papers or reports.
“This year’s topic for the competition is ‘Local Figures of Sarawak’s Northern Region’, and the participants will have to do some research and write about a local figure who has contributed in a significant way to the community with regards to socio-economical, political or other relevant aspects,” said Bibi.
Saturday’s workshop was the second training session for the participants.
Another workshop entitled ‘Out-of-Classroom Workshop: How to capture and make video’ will be held at Curtin’s auditorium on March 15.
“The workshop is part of the competition, and it trains the participants to become IT-savvy and enriches their knowledge of areas related to information technology.
“They will be learning the proper way to capture a video, producing it into a documentary and finally to summarise it in a report,” said Bibi.
The best team in the competition will bring home RM1,000 cash and certificates of achievement, while teams that complete their projects will receive RM200 cash and certificates.
Meanwhile, Pustaka Miri spokeswoman said ever since the competition was opened to schools in outskirts of the city, the organisers had been receiving encouraging response from these schools.
“We believe with more participation this year, we could discover writing talents among these students,” she said.
More information about the workshop can be obtained from www.pustaka-sarawak.com.