A three days workshop on “Academic and Creative Writing Practice” was organized by the Department of Education, Faculty of Social Sciences, FSS, International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI), in collaboration with Higher Education Commission (HEC), Islamabad.
Prof. Dr. Ahmed Yousif Al Draiweesh, President (IIU) was the chief guest in the concluding session of the workshop. During his address, President, IIUI contemplated that Allah Almighty differentiates between people who have knowledge and who don’t have. He added that character building, professional development of teachers, focus to educate all young people, respect for humanity and reduction in poverty by providing skill based education, are vital for the development of a better society. Dr. Draiweesh, lauded efforts of Education Departments’ team for organizing the prudent workshop on academic and creative writing. President also appreciated the efforts of Prof. Dr. Samina Malik, Dean Faculty of Social Sciences, Dr. Nabi Bux Jumnai, Director Distance Education, Dr. Munir Kiyani and all faculty members.
The purpose of this workshop was to provide hands on practice opportunity to the MS and Ph.D scholars in qualitative, quantitative and mixed method data analysis competencies. Prof. Dr. N. B. Jumani, guest of honour said that doing research is impossible without acquiring data analysis skills. He appreciated the efforts made by Dr. Muhammad Zafar Iqbal, focal person of the workshop and all faulty members for organizing this workshop.
Prof. Dr. Samina Yasmin Malik Dean Faculty of Social Sciences (FSS, IIUI) added that academic writing is most important for MS and PhD scholars. She said that academic writing is different from essay writing as it includes development of research instruments, collection of data, analysis and interpretation of data. She added that academic development of MS and PhD scholars is the top most priority of the Department and this workshop is a milestone to achieve objectives. She furthered that scholars need to have a better sense of data analysis techniques, while, department is arranging such workshops to enable the participants to understand the importance of academic and creative writing and acquire data analysis skills. She further added that academic writing includes obscuring and processing of thoughts and getting benefit from relevant research literature.
Dr. Muhmammad Munir Kiyani, Chairman, Department of Education said that objective of workshop is to train the scholars in quantitative, qualitative and mixed method data analysis, particularly; participants will acquire skills in triangulation. Dr. Shamsa Aziz, Chairperson Department of Education, female campus added that this workshop will enable participants how to apply statistics to their research data. Dr. Muhammad Zafar Iqbal Chaudhary, Assistant Professor, Department of Education (focal person of the workshop) presented the report of the workshop in the last session. Faculty members including Dr. Shiekh Tariq Mehmood, Dr. Syed Asad Abbas Rizvi, Dr. Azhar Memood, Dr. Muhammad Nasir Khan, Dr. Shazia Naureen, Dr. Zarina Akhtar, Dr. Fouzia Ajmal, Ms. Alina Raza, Ms. Humaira Akram, and Ms. Sumaira Batool also attended the workshop.