Johnson Crescent St. Jago Heights Spanish Town St. Catherine, Jamaica.

April 10, 2013.

Professor Ishenkumba Kahwa Dean Faculty of Science and Technology. University of the West Indies, Kingston 7.

Dear Mr. Kahwah, WRITING IN THE DISCIPLINES EXPERIENCE For the past semester, this being my second at this university I have explored several different academic fields which range from that of business and finance, further studies in Computer Science, my major, as well as digital media courses. Being a student, currently of the Faculty of Science and Technology, I have been fortunate to have the experience of doing something outside my current academic realm, the foundation course Writing in the Disciplines; course code FOUN1401. This course aims to provide the writing skills necessary for the ideal UWI graduate. The ideal UWI graduate must be a problem solver, an advanced / cognitive thinker, a creator of new forms of knowledge which should aid in the development of mankind and should also possess the ability to thoroughly communicate information to a large audience. This course helped set the building block for this goal by teaching me the importance of proper citation and how to find and use credible sources for research. I learned that citing sources is important as it proves that proper research on the topic was done and it recognizes the relevance of another persons work on the subject area. It is also done to avoid taking credit for another persons work (plagiarism) as well as to provide the reader with a blueprint for the sources of my thoughts and to put forth the ability for them to do further studies in the cited work. In this course, the main format used for citation is the APA format. It is popularly used as a guideline for researchers in writing papers when quoting others

works. I learned that proper citation is very important as it specifies the work done and by whom, in case there exists a similar title, author, year of publishing etc., also to familiarize oneself with a known worldwide standard. The proper implementation of this was stressed during this course in aim to relay to students this message. In the latter part of the course, another citation format was introduced, the Council of Science Editors (CSE) format. This was done mainly for the students in the Faculty of Science and Technology, but I personally didnt acknowledge it as relevant, especially because it wasnt as stressed as the APA. Another important topic taught in Writing in the Disciplines was how to find and use credible sources. The library session held earlier in the term taught me how to use the University library UWILINC database , how to use the AND, OR connectives in Google search and Google Scholar to filter the required sources needed for my research topic and the credentials needed to prove for a website/ source being deemed as valid and reliable for use. The annotated bibliography that had to be done for the research paper stressed the importance of the reliability and validity of my sources. In the assignment I had to say why it was valid, what was the sources purpose, the authors aim and why would I need it in as a source for my essay. Much had to be evaluated. Since learning this I have been a lot wiser in my use of terms in searching online sources to get reliable and accurate information and I do plan to use the UWILINC database if required, for further studies to be done at the university. I believe that with my previous knowledge from doing the preliminary CAPE subject required for this course and also with the course experience, the complexities of the writing process and its stages have been cemented in my mind and that I have fully accomplished the course objectives. This especially was done through learning the importance of proper citation and how to find credible sources. The quote you fail only if you stop writing, by Ray Bradbury is true, especially if taken in the literal context for this course. I have learned that writing is a continuous process; thoughts and perspectives can always be changed. Writing is never complete; writing something worth reading is never easy.

Yours Sincerely,

Ms. Jordanne Elliott.