Two QITEP in Science staff, Mrs Dian Indriany and Mr M. Firman Sujana, together with 23 other staff from four SEAMEO Centres in Indonesia, Training on the Basics of News Writing for Newsletter Publication and Website Updating, held from 1 – 2 April 2014 in Bogor. The training was organized by SEAMEO BIOTROP as its contribution to the SEAMEO Mentoring Program.
The general aim of the training was to provide participants with basic skill concepts and processes in news writing, and to eventually develop the skills for promoting the activities in newsletters and websites of their respective Centres. Specifically at the end of the training, participants were expected to be able to:(1)organize information to write a news article; (2) select the appropriate type of news lead that would highlight the most important information in the news article; and (3) write at least one news article.
The training consisted of lecture/discussions and workshops on the following topics: Overview on News and News Writing, Types of News Stories, Overview and Tips on Writing the News Lead, Steps in Writing News Story, Structures of News Story, Tips on Writing the News Body, and Tips in Writing News Headline.
18 news articles were produced by the participants; 12 from BIOTROP, two from QITEP in Language and RECFON respectively, and one from QITEP in Math and QITEP in Science respectively.
Dr Jess C. Fernandez, Deputy Director for Program of SEAMEO BIOTROP, coordinated the training and also acted as the primary resources person.