Who is she ?
Mrs. Asma Ali Zain is a journalist and storyteller with an experience of over 20 years. She has worked with Khaleej Times for 18 years. She started her career as a sub-editor and over the years she has grown from being a reporter to being the City Editor.
She has a degree in English Language and Literature from Forman Christian College, Lahore, Pakistan. She won the Dubai Shopping Festival Award 2005 for Best Feature Writer for UAE and has several other laurels to her credit. Currently, she is volunteering for Pakistan Association Dubai in their Own an Hour program to impart her journalism skills to university students.
She has a degree in English Language and Literature from Forman Christian College, Lahore, Pakistan. She won the Dubai Shopping Festival Award 2005 for Best Feature Writer for UAE and has several other laurels to her credit. Currently, she is volunteering for Pakistan Association Dubai in their Own an Hour program to impart her journalism skills to university students.
An overview of the visit
On Monday, the 14th of May, Mrs. Asma Ali Zain, the editor of and writer for the famous newspaper of the Arabian Gulf, Khaleej Times, visited the young editors and future journalists of Dubai scholars. This was a visit which took place due to an interesting project handed to Year 9, in which they had to make a magazine of their own.
For an entire hour, from 11am to 12pm, she discussed her experiences and the common difficulties faced by young writers and how to overcome those by utilizing simple, feasible solutions. One of the questions put to her was 'How do we sprout an eye-catching title for our story?' Mrs. Ali Zain's ingenious reply was that we must think of an engaging title before beginning the piece of writing. |
Not only did she share her experiences with us, she also gave us valuable feedback on some of our student’s editorial notes. It was a prodigious visit arranged by the English department, a lifetime's lesson to be learnt from Mrs. Ali Zain’s words.
Crucial tips delivered
Mrs. Ali Zain educated us on how to improve our efficiency and productivity while handling any piece of editing or writing. She also informed us about the main features a piece of writing should consist of, including spelling, punctuation, grammar, sentence structure and paragraphing.
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She also gave us an ample number of tips to keep in mind. For example, whenever we write something, we should always self-edit, keeping the grammar rules consistent in our writing-because grammar and punctuation are the main components that define the boundary between a good piece of writing and an excellent one.
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She also told us to publish our pieces of writing on a blog or any other form of social media, as this provides a larger platform to showcase our work and obtain constructive criticism. Another pointer made by her was to read and explore different genres of books to give us vivid thoughts and an open mind while we write.
Words of wisdom
“Spending an hour with brilliant and budding writers of Grade 9 was a learning experience for me too. It was a pleasure to listen to each one of the kids who presented outstanding samples of their work. Clearly, they knew what challenge they had been given and all of them lived up to it.
I noticed the good command over language each one of them had and a good understanding of the topics given to them. Each one of them had an individual writing style - a question they had posed - and showed good thinking skills and the time they had spent researching the topics.
Their questions also showed their inquisitiveness and eagerness to learn. As discussed with them, it is important for them to keep reading, writing and practicing getting better and better.”
– Mrs. Ali Zain
I noticed the good command over language each one of them had and a good understanding of the topics given to them. Each one of them had an individual writing style - a question they had posed - and showed good thinking skills and the time they had spent researching the topics.
Their questions also showed their inquisitiveness and eagerness to learn. As discussed with them, it is important for them to keep reading, writing and practicing getting better and better.”
– Mrs. Ali Zain
Written by: Bisha Fatima
Edited by: Anupama Warrier
Compiled by: Talha Ahmed Zia
Edited by: Anupama Warrier
Compiled by: Talha Ahmed Zia