By Douglas Izuu
Contestants of the National Literary Competition for Deaf & Hard of Hearing Students (NLCDHHS) have relieved their experience even as the competition gathers momentum for its second phase.
The NLCDHHS competition which is currently ongoing among the tertiary DHH students in Nigeria kicked off 8th August, 2020. This was preceded by a week long registration timeframe.
At least 30 Deaf and Hard Hearing students from different tertiary institutions in Nigeria registered for the competition, while contestants are said to have completed their first task of “essay writing” on 14th August.
Speaking on the experience during the essay writing task, a contestant said, “This essay writing task has made me realize that writing is thinking and thinking is tough. I learnt that if you cannot think, you cannot write, and you may end up committing plagiarism.”
The contestant further added that “This essay writing task however has increased my thinking ability making me to be deep in thoughts. I’m glad for this experience. I’m looking forward to the next task which is the poetry. I can’t wait to lock myself in the room and start writing again.”
A contestant who found the essay challenging noted, “I’ve learned new technical ways to write essays and realized that a thesis statement is very important because it helps you write the body without difficulties.”
In expressing strength and weakness, a contestant said, “My strength was that I know what to write. My weaknesses was that I didn’t know how to start and build paragraphs.”
Another contestant who doesn’t trust his memory said “The moment I saw it, I rushed to grab my jotter and pen beside my bed to write down my ideas and outlines. I had a sudden brainstorm”.
One of the contestants who postulated the quote, “writing is thinking and thinking is tough” was nominated as the ‘Socrates of the week’.
The contestants are currently engaged with the second task which involves ‘poetry writing’ with the deadline for submission slated for Friday, August 21.