As part of a monthly dialogue series, Pal-Think has held a series of research writing skills training sessions attended by members of the Democracy and Youth Dialogue Forum within the PalThink Academy of Democracy and Human Rights project.

Given by trainer Dr. Yahya Qaoud, the first session addressed research methods and preparing an outline for a research paper. Then, he presented tools and methods of scientific research, multiple approaches, and how to use them in writing research papers related to democracy and human rights issues.

The session also discussed the importance of research and writing for Palestinian youth, and the accumulation of knowledge in forming and expressing their personal opinion according to sound research writing methodologies, regardless of the topic or type of the scientific production (article, scientific paper, research, study).

As for the second session, it discussed “writing a personal opinion on papers and research writings” and the importance of expressing opinion on youth writings, which carry new creative visions, after the accumulation of knowledge in forming and expressing personal opinion according to sound research writing methodologies, whatever the topic and the type of scientific production.

During the session, a group of issues related to democracy and human rights was discussed, and the participants expressed their personal opinions on those issues, basing their arguments on international and domestic laws, data, and statistics.

The third session discussed “paper structure” and objective and formal editing of research papers and citing mechanisms.

The participants wrote their own papers that dealt with a wide range of democracy and human rights issues, such as the “right to work” and “hate speech among young people in universities and on social media,” as well as “the state of democracy in Palestine.”

It is expected that these papers will be produced after follow-up by “Pal-Think” for strategic studies, and published in the “Academy Journal”.