21 June 2024: UiTM Pahang Branch Jengka Campus, in collaboration with Universitas Ahmad Dahlan, Indonesia, had organised the ELC151 Webinar: Techniques in Paraphrasing and Summarising. In line with the complication that arises with plagiarism activities amongst students in their academic work, particularly the use of copy-paste in their writing, Akademi Pengajian Bahasa (APB) UiTM Pahang Branch Jengka Campus has taken the initiative to ensure that students are readied and supplemented with the knowhow and expertise of paraphrasing and summarising information without directly copying the same actual text given.

Dr. Azwar Abbas, an experienced lecturer in Linguistic Pragmatics from the English Education Department, Universitas Ahmad Dahlan, has been very accommodating in disseminating tips and strategies in mastering paraphrasing and summarizing techniques. This two-hour seminar was handled by Mr. Khairul Firhan Yusob, which began at 3.00 pm, and ended at 5.00 pm. Approximately 150 students attended the webinar session with students from Jengka Campus, other UiTM branch campuses, and students from Universitas Ahmad Dahlan too. Following the slots, there was a Q & A session where students took the opportunity to ask questions on summarizing, paraphrasing, and using AI to complete their assignments.

Overall, participants are very satisfied with the program in helping them to become better at paraphrasing and summarising academic texts, in particular. It is hoped that a seminar like this can be continuously held to assist students in their learning and students will continue supporting our program.

Author: Azlini Razali & Khairunisa Nikman