In a move to set things rolling in the new administration, the leadership of the Zik hall Literary and Debating society on Friday, February 11, 2022 resumed its mini-essay writing exercise tagged Ship 20 for 20. The exercise requires all members of the society to write short ‘atomic’ essays of not more than 250-300 words everyday for twenty days. The exercise is intended to build consistency and harness creativity in writing. This very much puts back the ‘L’ (literary) in Literary and Debating.
The Ship 20 for 20 is a brainchild of the immediate past administration of the L and D, spearheaded by Chiziterem Ogbonna, the erstwhile President, who introduced the exercise. The essays are published on the society’s twitter page and also on individual members’ WhatsApp status.
The new President of the society, Omotayo Ajibola while speaking to a ZHPO correpondent commented on the exercise. “It started during the immediate past administration. We believe that good writing leads to good thinking, and good thinking leads to good public speaking. The three are parts of one whole. And we believe that writing short “atomic” essays for 20 days will kick start, push, and activate the members’ creativity and mental faculties to levels you would never have expected. I genuinely believe that each of us has amazing ideas in our minds and we want to use the power of writing to further ignite our genius”.
Speaking on the impact of the exercise on the participants, Omotayo reiterates, “I joined the society in my first year with little knowledge about public speaking. The society refined me. I won the best rookie speaker at jaw war that same year and went ahead to win other competitions in the school. I feel the impact of the society everyday. And I plan to make everyone else feel it”.
Martial pen
