Jabari Charles

620102512
Stream 22
Loverne George
Wednesday, 6-8pm
 The foundation course, FOUN1014- Critical Reading and Writing in Science, Technology

and Medical Sciences, aims to improve the reading, and writing skills of a student by teaching the

correct processes for effective research. This pushes them to understand and implement analytical

reading along with detailed writing for any occasion. In the end, producing a well-rounded

university student in the aspects of comprehension and investigation. In this scenario, a library

session was organized to educate students on what, how to identify, and where to locate a credible

source. This was a necessary process because, soon thereafter students would need to capture the

data from various sources, and analyze them. Before the final paper was produced, these 3

necessary steps were to be followed. Firstly, develop a process paper which showed the route your

research would take. Secondly an annotated bibliography which gauged various aspects of a

selected scholarly source. Thirdly, an essay outline, which contained a thesis, introduction and

Points further elaborated in the body of the essay. As a result, reproducing the gathered information

in the form of a research paper, which mirrors the level of understanding on the topic. “A good

paper, takes a well thought process, therefore it should have steps”. Presentation skills were tested

when students were tasked with forming groups to present a poster on a topic of choice. Now

comes a reflective piece which illustrates a student’s experiences during this course was submitted.

The time spent throughout this course, my views, its holistic individual impacted and the results

of self-growth is contained in this piece.

Pointless! I exclaimed, as a friend informed me that FOUN 1014 was a requirement to

graduate. More so, the late lectures and seminars made it very burdensome. Nevertheless, I

attended because it was necessary. In the fourth week, a library session was held to teach students
about credible sources. During that session, a considerable amount of knowledge was imparted to

us in regards to identifying and use of scholarly sources; yet again I was unmoved for I still did

not find importance in such knowledge. The first assignment, the “Process Paper”, was given. My

search, extended far enough to lose sight of my initial goal, with disregard for that same library

session lecture on the above mentioned topic. Pulling to a halt, I stopped myself and realized that

I had no more than a small interest for the burdening quest. A quote by Pete Hamill says, “Writing

is the hardest work in the world not involving heavy lifting.” and I couldn’t agree more. Adjusting

to the reading and writing was a task. The Annotated bibliography felt like a heightened art of

learning to grasp and leech at every word in a source. At one point it felt as if my second name

would be correction, for I could see nothing but corrections in the drafts I recycled to my lecturer.

Alas, there was always space for improvement; through countless reviews I learnt to understand,

process and script each correction into new words that brought new life to sentences.

To conclude, I found this course very challenging in the beginning and not to be taken

lightly. In spite of this, I began to receive even more comments on the improvement of my writing

ability, not only from my lecturer but also my peers. FOUN 1014 has shaped my skills in such a

way that I am successfully departing with a higher level of comprehension and writing ability than

I came with. Many times have I thought of starting over, but couldn’t, instead I chose to act now

to create anew(Marie Robinson). (600 words)