In the morning of 30 March 2024, at our office, the Cambodian Center for Regional Studies (CCRS) organized a workshop on “How to write effective op-eds” by two distinguished speakers, Mr. Kavi Chongkittavorn, Senior Columnist, and Mr. Vijian Paramsivam, Veteran Journalist.
As part of CCRS’ capacity building, the workshop aims to enhance writing skills for our young researchers in order to write opinion pieces or short reaction papers on important issues of current affairs more effectively. About 20 CCRS’ researchers attended this workshop.
At the opening, Mr. Him Raksmey, Executive Director of CCRS warmly greeted the distinguished speakers and all participants to the workshop. He expressed CCRS appreciation for the technical support given by the two distinguished senior media experts for imparting their relevant knowledge on how to write effectively short commentaries to our young CCRS researchers who are encouraged to pen down their ideas based on their own initiative on issues relevant to Cambodia and the region.
Amb. Pou Sothirak, Distinguished Senior Advisor to CCRS, noted that this workshop focuses on practical skills to improve the writing ability of our researchers, beyond grammar and spelling. CCRS researchers must capitalize on this opportunity to learn as much as they can from the two distinguished speakers on how to improve their writing skill in order to convey the right message with regard to accuracy, clarity, persuasiveness, and other elements that make their writing piece unique and succinct. Amb. Pou said writing is a special skill that needs commitment, practice, and time to cultivate. He encouraged CCRS researchers to pay serious attention to the presentations by the two senior journalist and editor so as to gain valuable writing skill in order to express their views on regional affairs accurately and effectively.
The two distinguished speakers, Khun Kavi Chongkittavorn and Mr. Vijian Paramsivam, gave valuable presentations on how to write op-eds effectively. They touched upon basic elements of writing op-eds including what opinion piece is, and rationales behind writing op-ed. They emphasized that the key intention of writing op-ed is to convey a message, a narrative or a story, and inform targeted audience of what the author wishes to tell in a concise and succinct manner with clear arguments. Khun Kavi and Mr. Vijian also shared relevant useful tips on how to write op-eds more effectively, including ways to pick relevant and unique topics and angles, construct ideas and form arguments through critical thinking and informed discussions, and find time to practice, and start writing.
The two speakers allowed CCRS to ask questions. As there are not many well-known Cambodian writers, Khun Kavi and Mr. Vijian suggested that CCRS researchers take upon themselves to write on relevant issues to Cambodia by providing excitng views to expose Cambodia within the relevant internal, regional, and global contexts. CCRS holds potential prospects for grooming up good Cambodia writers so as to influence positively regional discourse on current issues.
CCRS’ researchers were very thankful and learned a lot from Khun Kavi and Mr. Vijian on how to write op-eds and short commentaries more effectively. The tips shared during this important workshop are helpful to enhance ability of our CCRS’ team in writing op-eds.
