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Unread 18-05-2007, 20:59
Ken Leung's Avatar Unsung FIRST Hero
Ken Leung Ken Leung is offline
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FRC #0115 (Monta Vista Robotics Team)
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: May 2001
Rookie Year: 1999
Location: Palo Alto, California
Posts: 2,390
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Ken's Writing Challenge

***Updated 2008 Challenge***

I started taking writing seriously when I begin to participate actively in the Chief Delphi Forum. That definition of "writing" was very broad, though, because it varied from asking for contact info of teams I never even heard of, to commenting on a new game. Nevertheless, it was a big deal for me - I never spent so much time thinking in the English Language since coming to the US 13 years ago at the age of twelve.

Once I started, I could not stop. I found myself thinking about writing when I was riding on the train, when I was walking around downtown San Francisco, when I was at a FIRST competition. All sorts of questions became interesting to me: FIRST, school, the American culture, growing up, and so on.

Then I wrote an extremely tremendously enormously wordy piece talking about my FIRST experience, and felt my life changed forever. I haven't stopped thinking about what I want to write since then, the latest being "With one arm we will hold onto one another.". (It's very easy to search for the other pieces, just search for threads I started in General Forum)

I want to share this experience with other students, and this is the perfect place because FIRST is designed to get students thinking about what they want before their life is about to be turned upside down. So I came up with an idea.

This is Ken's Writing Challenge:

I challenge all students in FIRST, high school or college, and all mentors in FIRST, to sit down and spend some time writing for one of three topics. There is no restriction on the writing other than its topic. There are no word limits, though I want to stress the importance of learning to communicate effectively in a concise, logical, and focused manner.

I also challenge you to write for yourself and no others. You should be your own coach, and your own critic, because when it comes down to it, it does not matter what others think about you. Only what you think matters.

And I challenge you to take this seriously, to treat this as an intellectual exercise in writing skills development, and as an opportunity to organize and understand your thoughts.

You may select one of three topics.

Topic #1: The Past
Tell us about a single problem humanity has been facing in the past and still have not solve today. Tell us why we need to care about this problem. Tell us what the world is and isn't doing to fix it, and tell us what FIRST students can do in the future about it.

Topic #2: The Present
Think back on everything happened since you began the 2008 FIRST season when school started last fall. Contemplate every experience you have gone through, and tell us what you learned about yourself, your team, your mentors, your FIRST community, your culture, your world, your education, your life, or your future, from this one year you spent in FIRST.

Topic #3: The Future
Think about our world today, and tell us where you think FIRST is and should be heading in the future. Consider first: What impacts have made in our culture? What have we really accomplished in the past 15 years? Is it worth making a big fuzz out of all these? Then imagine yourself to be the President of FIRST, and tell us what kind of future you envision for us. Tell us why should we spend so much time and energy in a mere robotics competition, and tell us the things you want to do with this organization and community.

But that's not all! Aside from asking each and everyone of you to pick up a pen and start writing, I calling to make this a community effort. As such, we should all come together and help each other to get better at writing, to get better at critiquing, to get better at thinking, and get better at working together. So, as the last part of this writing challenge, I challenge this community to take ownership of this idea, to use it as an opportunity to motivate and support each other, and to make it a better challenge every year.

That is Ken's Writing Challenge.


Too easy? Too tough? Need clarification? Feel free to post a question and comment in this thread.

Ready to post your submission? Simply take a deep breath, post it in this thread, and watch what people think about it.
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Hardware Test Engineer supporting RE<C, Google.

1999-2001: Team 192 Gunn Robotics Team
2001-2002: Team 100, 192, 258, 419
2002-2004: Western Region Robotics Forum, Score Keeper @ Sac, Az, SVR, SC, CE, IRI, CalGames
2003-2004, 2006-2007: California Robot Games Manager
2008: MC in training @ Sac, CalGames
2009: Master of Ceremony @ Sac, CalGames
2010: GA in training @ SVR, Sac.
2010-2011: Mechanical Mentor, Team 115 MVRT

Last edited by Ken Leung : 24-09-2008 at 06:26. Reason: Edited for the 2008 season
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