Write to Win: Meet this season’s winner, Charis Chan from Malvern College Hong Kong
- The 14-year-old student shares what she learned from joining our writing contest
- Stay tuned for the start of the new season next week
Charis Chan’s alias was “The Lion” during our competition. Photo: HandoutHow did I go from writing a short composition every week to being heavily involved in different activities with Young Post? It all started with randomly scrolling through the YP website on a summer afternoon.
During the summer break, I thought to myself: I haven’t done much writing lately. Why not get some inspiration from the internet and do some practice? I went to the YP site and found out about Write to Win.
The competition motivated me to “think outside the box” about various topics, including plants that could share secrets with me, having an unlimited supply of something, creating night markets, and more.
Throughout this contest, I developed a wide range of writing and soft skills. The first ones were organisational: only including necessary content in my compositions. Because of the limited word count, I had to organise my ideas and evidence and use precise language to captivate the audience and deliver my opinions.
I improved my time management skills. Alongside other school tasks that I had to manage, I spent my time more wisely to complete the writing each week to a high standard while also finishing my schoolwork properly. To include the best ideas and do my best for each round in this contest, I brainstormed whenever I had time, putting on my thinking hat and coming up with more ideas to choose from for the final piece of writing.
Though every question broadened my horizons and taught me a thing or two about the topic, I was most impressed by the seventh question: what plant would I like to talk to? As someone who hates biology, I researched a range of exotic plants, then chose the skunk cabbage so I could express my curious side to the readers. The skunk cabbage really interested me once I got to know about it, making the act of stepping out of my comfort zone enjoyable.
I am grateful to be the winner of this season’s Write to Win and would like to thank the editors who transformed my pieces into presentable works and everyone who supported me throughout this contest!
We have prepared some exciting prizes for our top three contestants:
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Winner: Fujifilm Instax Mini LiPlay, JBL headphones, Kindle, and a YP certificate
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First runner-up: Kindle, power bank, HK$500 Eslite voucher, and a YP certificate
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Second runner-up: Kindle, HK$300 Eslite voucher, and a YP certificate