Sarah Khan
Self Assessment Essay
Writing for Engineers
5/21/19
When I entered this class in the spring of 2019, I felt that I wasn’t the worst writer; however, my writing wasn’t the best either. After taking this Writing for Engineering course, I can safely say that my writing has been strengthened. I feel that this has a lot to do with the way the assignments were set up. Each assignment was realistic, and taught me something. For example, the resume and cover letter assignment made me really start thinking of what I would like to do in the future and how I would like to present myself on paper, when applying for a job or to be a part of a certain company. It called for a formal tone, and helped me exercise how to say a lot about myself, with the least amount of words possible, which was evidently a challenge. The memo assignment called for the use of a formal, yet assertive tone, as we were asked to email the president of the college with a complaint of a problem on campus, with a solution to that problem. The lab report analysis enforced the importance of sources and references, and showed what a good lab report consists of, and how to differentiate between a well written and a poorly written lab report. The technical description really made me think of everything that goes into something as simple as a blow dryer. This assignment exposed me to how hard it can be to write even an instruction manual, because one has to keep non-native English speakers in mind, showing how word choice is really important. The final assignment, the proposal, incorporated all of the previous assignments, as well as incorporating collaboration. This was a group assignment that included a technical description, the use of sources and references, making sure we were concise as we had a short frame of time to explain a lot of information.
I feel that most, if not all of the course learning objectives were met throughout this course. The first learning objective, which is “acknowledge your and others’ range of linguistic differences as resources, and draw on those resources to develop rhetorical sensibility,” was met everyday in the class. For example, our class was very diverse and there were a variety of non-native English speakers whom we had to work with. This served as a reminder that in the real world, we will obviously have to work with people who don’t exactly speak English as a native language and we will have to make documents keeping this fact in mind. The second learning objective, which is “enhance strategies for reading, drafting, revising, editing, and self-assessment,” was met whenever we wrote multiple drafts and participated in peer reviews. This goes to show that writing, or at least good writing, is a process. Sometimes, we think we’ve written the best essay possible, then after peer reviews, we realize how much we can improve our draft. Even a second draft, after being proofread multiple times, can be improved one way or another. We also met the second learning objective by using CCNY databases, class readings, and drafting for the resumes, cover letters, memos, lab reports, and technical descriptions. I feel that this made way for good writing practice and a good understanding of how to write concise, comprehensive documents. The third learning objective, which is “negotiate your own writing goals and audience expectations regarding conventions of genre, medium, and rhetorical situation,” was met with the varying assignments we had to complete. For example, we had to assess our audience for all of the assignments and adjust our tone accordingly. The different mediums used would be blackboard, for discussions and quizzes, slides, for our presentations. The fourth learning objective, which is “develop and engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes,” was met almost everyday in class. This was met during peer reviews and especially during the proposal project, where we were asked to work with classmates to review and help improve our assignments, and to create a whole document and presentation with classmates.
The fifth learning objective, which is “engage in genre analysis and multimodal composing to explore effective writing across disciplinary contexts and beyond,” is similar to the third learning objective, as it was met with multiple assignments, where we had different genres of writing, such as a memo or lab report or technical description, and we had to assess our audience and tone accordingly. The sixth learning objective, which is “formulate and articulate a stance through and in your writing,” was met with multiple assignments, but especially with the lab report analysis. For example, with the lab report analysis, we had to persuade our audience about whether or not the lab report was written effectively, using evidence from the lab report to support everything we said. Another example of when this learning objective was met is with the resume/cover letter. This is because, with this assignment, we had to argue why we should be hired by the company, and show evidence of how we meet the criteria to be a part of that company by what we put in our resumes. The seventh learning objective, which is “practice using various library resources, online databases, and the Internet to locate sources appropriate to your writing projects,” was met with every assignment because we used these resources for each one. The eighth learning objective, which is “strengthen your source use practices (including evaluating, integrating, quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, synthesizing, analyzing, and citing sources),” was met with the lab report, technical description, and proposal assignments. This is because we had to use in-text citations for quotes and paraphrasing and citing throughout these assignments.
All in all, after completing this course, I feel that I can say that I learned a couple of key writing tips. I learned that when writing technical documents, I have to keep non-native english speakers in mind and be careful with my word choice. I also have to try to be as concise as I can with a lot of information, but still getting all of my points across. I learned when writing any kind of technical document, I have to cite everything and provide sufficient research and include all references to make my document stronger. I also learned how to distinguish between a reliable and unreliable source when doing research. I learned the struggle, but also the beauty, of collaboration. Multiple heads are better than one and when a group puts their mind to one thing, the outcome can be outstanding. However, if everyone is doing their own thing, it can be hard to accomplish anything, especially when trying to free up everyone’s schedules at the same time to try to get work done. This is the struggle with collaboration; however the end results are worth it.
Overall, keeping all of these writing strategies in mind, I feel that I am a better writer than I was in the beginning of the semester. I will definitely take all of these strategies with me to my next English class and to the work field and I know this will ensure my documents will be strong, concise, and comprehensive to all.
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