Yogyakarta, February 9th 2023─Students from the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences of Universitas Gadjah Mada (FISIPOL UGM) won in two categories at the National Conference on Urban Sociology organized by Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) last December. Ovy Novakarti, student of Master of Sociology class 2020, won Best Paper in the General Category. The title of Best Paper in the Student Category was won by a team from FISIPOL UGM chaired by Hasna Roliansya. Hasna led a team consisting of Hilman Nurjaman, Tjok Istri Sintawati, and Cindy Aulia Fitriana. The four students come from the Department of Sociology and the Department of Politics and Government (DPP).
Participating in the competition is a challenge for Ovy to hone her writing skills and critical thinking. Even though she had doubts at first, Ovy finally worked up the courage to start writing and sent her abstract. “I thought that the opportunity would not come twice and I dared to start writing,” said Ovy.
In her paper, Ovy discusses educational inequality which he considers a form of urban crisis. “This inequality occurs due to people’s lack of accessibility to internet technology which is influenced by the geographic conditions where they live,” explained Ovy. Therefore, Ovy hopes that the results of her research can increase the sensitivity of policymakers in responding to educational phenomena.
On the other hand, Hasna and her team experienced difficulties due to the approaching collection date, so the process was quite rushed. “Data collection is something we won’t forget. Because we toured the province of Yogyakarta in a short time and it was raining while we were interviewing our source people,” said Hasna when sharing her experience. The presentation preparation process itself cannot be maximized because it is accompanied by the Final Semester Examination (UAS). However, after spending a lot of time and energy conducting interviews, observations, and preparation, the paper was successfully completed and presented properly.
Ovy conveyed several things that need to be considered when writing a paper; first, it is important for us to understand the chosen theme and sub-theme; second, it is also important to understand the novelty of the issues raised; third, use references from reputable books or journals published in the last ten years; fourth, map each part and adjust it according to the number of words so that the writing is easy to understand; and fifth, don’t be shy to ask for reviews from other people.