DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

TECHNICAL LITERACY - TCHL101

Surname, Initials Student Student

Number/s Signature
STUDENT/S Durgiah T 22107247
INFORMATION

Reflective writing
ASSIGNMENT TOPIC

18th October 2021

DUE DATE

17th October 2021

SUBMISSION DATE

M. S. Potgieter
EXAMINER/LECTURER

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 Acknowledgements

I would first like to express my thanks to my lecturer, Mr. M. Potgieter, for giving us the opportunity
to read, and write freely, our views on both of these beautiful, life changing books and giving us a
space to express ourselves and our life experiences during this tough time of the Covid-19 pandemic.
As well as for guiding us through this assignment in every way possible. For being the biggest
helping hand and encouragement as well as our motivation to keep at it, even if we feel blocked.
I would also like to thank the authors of both these books, Stephen Covey (7 Habits of Highly
Effective People) and Rhonda Byrne (The Secret) for creating such beautiful pieces of literature.
These books have changed the way I view opportunities and life in general with the wise words of
both of these authors that have probably helped millions, like myself, find a new, positive way to
view and approach life.
I’d like to thank my parents for giving me the best technology to be able to do the proper research and
format of this assignment. And for giving me encouragement when I felt blocked on what to write.
I’d also like to thank my peers for their direct and indirect help on this assignment. For both their
support and for asking certain questions that I didn’t know I needed answered or that I didn’t even
think of.

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 Table of contents

Acknowledgements…………………………………………………….2
Introduction……….......………………………………………………. 4
Body……………………………………………………………………5
Conclusion…………….……………………………………………….7
References………………...…………………………………………….8
Appendix ……………………………………………………………….9

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 Introduction
“The secret” and “7 habits of highly effective people” both have a similar theme in the sense that they
both are “teaching” you the way of life/how to be successful and get what you want. “the secret”
however is teaching you about the law of attraction. I actually learned about a process quiet similar, if
not, the same. It’s called manifestation. Believe it’s yours and it will be, however, work on your part,
physical work is still required. Unfortunately wishing for something will not make it appear on your
lap. The “7 habits of highly effective people” however speaks about a more active way of achieving
the best out of life, and in multiple ways. I personally feel like all methods are necessary. After
reading both of these books, it did somewhat give me a clearer strategy on how to achieve the goals id
set for myself this semester. Covey (1989: 76) says “The challenge is not to manage time, but to
manage ourselves” is one line that really made me rethink the way my current way of learning and
life in general. To be able to maintain discipline, we need to have the willpower to choose our needs
over our wants. First year of university can be difficult in the sense that you have more freedom and
more influence. Finding the balance between enjoying this newly earned freedom and the
responsibility of your work can be difficult if you do not have strong willpower, the ability to say no.
the quadrant method for habit 3 really made me realise that I’ve been putting the first quadrant, things
like pressing problems, crisis, deadlines, focusing all of my time on those things just cause you to
become unhealthily stressed and can destroy your production and mental health. Rather, focusing on
things like planning, relationship building and finding new opportunities will help avoid those crisis,
problems and make deadlines less stressful. Focusing your time on this quadrant leads to more
productivity. I can confidently say and agree with this because I have been putting these things into
practice and it has definitely decreased my stress levels and makes me feel more in control.

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 Body
The law of attraction is definitely very real, even if we don’t realise it. All my life, I’ve been a very
reserved, insecure and shy person, mostly due to bullying. Once I noticed myself getting “bad” I was
skipping out on things that would’ve benefitted me or things that I actually needed because of my
insecurities. Until I was introduced to the law of attraction but in a different way. “fake it until you
make it.” Fake your confidence and eventually, it will become a natural thing. So I did just that. By
telling myself, every day, that I can do it, I started speaking out more, participating in class, dressing
how I wanted to, started speaking my mind, eventually I could actually do it. I forced myself to do
these things, always telling myself “you’ve got this, you have no reason to be scared, you are
confident, you are strong.” And now, here I am. I’ve ditched all the baggy clothes that hid my
insecurities and now wear them proudly. I speak when I feel that I need to and I speak my mind
fearlessly because I stopped caring if other people like me, because I like me. That simple change of
mind-set, the simple change to positive thinking, became my reality. I thought I was confident and
continuously told myself that I am, and now I actually am. I was so shy in school that most teachers
didn’t know I even existed! Now, in university, I was given the role of the class representative by my
peers and I am known by peers that I don’t even know! I speak on behalf of my class and help out
where I can. It is really true that what you feel or think will determine what you attract in life. That’s
my one experience with the law of attraction.

Covid-19. Ah. I can’t say I completely hate it for taking away so many precious moments and
memories because in many ways, it has made me appreciate the moments we have right now because
we never know when we will see someone or that moment again. Covid-19 had a big impact on both
my matric year and first year at university. I didn’t get to say a proper goodbye to my friends nor did I
get to have a prom or make those final memories in matric due to the strict rules and the immense
amount of pressure placed on us as we missed so much of work due to the lockdown. However, it did,
in a way, become beneficial for university because it taught us how to work more so on our own
instead of relying on our teachers as much. Now for university, Covid-19 has definitely taken away
our chance to get a university experience on campus. However, not going to campus has made certain
modules less stressful because staying home means online, open book tests, however some open book
tests also make things way more stressful for other modules, such as physics, because the questions
are usually set at a very high level, a level that even having albert Einstein with you wouldn’t help. I
do, however, like the fact that we get to be home because it gives more time to do more work by
working later nights since, if I had to go on campus, I’d have to be up at 4am and leave at 6am, which
wouldn’t allow for later nights to do work and assignments. However, don’t be fooled! Sitting at
home, having online lectures is EQUALLY as tiring, if not, more tiring than being at campus.
Considering that you’d be getting called in between classes to do chores, even if you didn’t, it is
definitely equally as tiring as actually being on campus. Not only did we have to learn a whole new
subjected matter, much harder subject matter, we had to also learn how to use new forms of
learning/online learning. Also, not having a lecturer in front of you, teaching you the work, makes it
harder to learn the content. It also brought a lot of costs, to get laptops, Wi-Fi and/or data, both was
necessary because of load shedding.

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Even though covid-19 caused shorter semesters, it definitely did not leave us with less work. The
same amount of work that was designed to be taught over 6 months, is now crammed into 3 or 4
months. This means more content to be studied at a faster rate, tests all very close together and a
mountain of assignments, with due dates pretty close together. If I’m honest, most lecturers do give us
some time and take into consideration our mental health and stress levels when it comes to due dates
or test dates. Since covid-19 started when I was in matric, my study method didn’t change all that
much. We had to cram months of work in a very short time during matric which, if I try to look at it
positively, somewhat prepared us for university during covid. We didn’t get to have much of a matric
experience, nor did we get to have our first year, life on campus, experiences. However, I cherish the
moments I do go on campus for certain practical’s. covid-19 definitely affected the experiences of
university “life” in both positive and negative ways. For someone like me, online learning was
beneficial because I got to make friends easier, compared to making friends in person. Which also
lead to me becoming the class representative, which is completely out of my comfort zone but a
hugely appreciated honour.
I’d say covid-19 impacted my career/degree by making it harder to get an internship or even a job
because of the massive negative impact covid-19 had on the economy. An internship is so crucial in
this ever changing world and especially with this field. Experience is necessary, as well as getting
money as soon as you can due to the price increases and new needs brought about by covid-19.

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 Conclusion
Reading both of these books have given me a new way to approach future tests, semesters and years.
The law of attraction has told me that thinking positively will attract positive things. my interpretation
would be, if I think that this subject matter is too hard and not enjoyable, then that is exactly what it
will be and it will show in my results. However, taking the opposite approach, finding the positive,
finding interesting things in those subjects, telling yourself that it can be done, it will definitely get
done and those positive thoughts will manifest through your results. For example, I used to dislike
chemistry, as I mentioned before, but now, I tell myself “oh this is so interesting, learning how
intricately designed everything on this planet is.” And believe it or not, chemistry is now one of my
favourite modules and I already got 90% for my first test. However, that 90% didn’t come from just
thinking positively, long hours and hard work was required, and that’s where “The 7 Habits of Highly
Effective People” came into play. I actually got the chance to read this book before my test, so I took
some of the advice, proactivity vs reactivity was one thing that stuck out. Instead of blaming covid-19
for the current challenges, find solutions and change the circumstance in whatever way possible.
Synergy! This one. Meeting new people from all different walks of life and different mentalities is
exciting and extremely important/beneficial when it comes to studying in university. I was fortune
enough to find a group of people with the greatest synergy! Covey (1989) says “Think effectiveness
with people and efficiency with things.” is crucial in university to avoid wasting time or being led
astray.
I have 6 modules this semester. My goal for this semester is:
SEMSTER 2: SEMSTER 1:
Module Expected Module Results
results
EMTA101 80%
EMTB10 90%
CSTN101 92%
1
CEFA101 92%
TCHL101 90%
EPHA101 70%
CEFB101 90%
ENCA101 73%
EPHB101 85%
CMAP101 89%
ENCB101 90%
CEDS101 90%

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 REFERENCES

Covey. S. R 1989. 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. New York: free press. Available:
http://pdf.allbookshub.com/general/the-7-habits-of-highly-effective-people.pdf (accessed: 7 October
2021)
Hussain. A. 2021. 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Summary. Hubspot (blog). Available:
https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/habits-of-highly-effective-people-summary# (accessed: 7 October
2021)
Goeke. N. 2018. The Secret Summary. Four minute books (Blog). Available:
https://fourminutebooks.com/the-secret-summary/ (accessed: 10 October 2021)
DUT. ITS web interface. (web interface.) available:
https://mercury.dut.ac.za/pls/prodi41/w99pkg.mi_call_mess (accessed 16 October 2021)

Appendix

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 DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
ASSESSEMENT SHEET FOR TECHNICAL REPORT
2021 Report Mark : _______

Late Penalty : _______

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 Technical Literacy – TCHL101

Student Name
Group ID.
Final Mark
Examiners comments:

Criteria. Allocated Examiner Moderators

s mark %
%
Mark %
• Cover page 5
• Acknowledgement 5

• Table of Content 5

1. Introduction 15
• How the topic is understood (What is the theme of the book/s)?
• Why is the topic/s worthy of discussion?
• How is it affecting or not affecting your own life/outlook on life
in this different year/semester?
2. Body 30
Theory and Background
• Literature is included for more comprehensive background.
• This background will include information of which the reader is
probably not aware, and which is required to understand the
report, to justify the investigation and to follow arguments.
• DUT Harvard Referencing system must be used to indicate the
source of each statement or data and each equation or
derivation used in the literature chapter.

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 • Only the relevant literature should be discussed

Discussion
• Report the most important points/results first.
• Use graphical and tabular presentation judiciously,
favouring graphical presentation.
(Do not, in the same report, show the same data
graphically and in tabular form)
• Indicate important points to the reader. It often makes
more sense to report the results and immediately discuss
their significance.
(NB! Mostly these are placed separately in an appendix and
referred to here but for this report place them in this section)
Although report is more reflective rather than technical,
however, there are forms of correlations between different the
variables. These correlations must be explained using accepted
theories and mechanisms.

5. Conclusion 15

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 • Stated conclusions reached from above discussion.
 mentioned first, unless this leads to bad logic or loss of
argument.
 No new material, information or conclusions may be
introduced at this point.
 All the objectives of the investigation, as stated in the
Introduction, must be addressed. Here.
 All conclusions mentioned here, must have been discussed
beforehand.
 All conclusions must be based on results.

6. References 15
• Used citation or in-text referencing in own writing.
• Provided a list of references cited according to the DUT Harvard
Referencing System. For document on DUT Harvard Referencing
System see http://library.dut.ac.za/e-refguide/index.htm
9. Appendices 5
 Presented tables of data, figures, or pictures.
10. General 5
• Correct format for report writing.
• Free of spelling and grammatical errors.
• Appropriate use of format, fonts, and layout.
• The language used is appropriate to an intended audience.

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