Introduction
When signing up for Writing for Engineers, I did not know what I was getting into. I couldn’t say it was going to be easy nor could I say it was going to be hard. Typically when someone thinks of an engineering major, no one thinks there is going to be a specific WRITING class for it. As an intended computer science major, I was curious to see how this would be a relevant topic for my future career. Through many project examples in class directly related to software engineering, I found my answer.
It became clear to me very quickly that this class would be an outlier in comparison to all my other English classes I have taken since middle school. English classes before seemed like redundant elaborations of what came before them. However, writing for engineers introduced a new type of literary format. A type of writing based on the lack of emotion, lack of personal opinion, and a clear display of facts, evidence, and an immense requirement for professionalism. This specifically was an issue for me since my traditional writing style always incorporated some level of humor, as I often thought teachers/professors wouldn’t mind a little chuckle every now and then reading the 500 papers they do. But it became apparent that this wasn’t a very appropriate approach in this class.
I believe that over this semester, I’ve learned the course learning outcomes well and I’ve applied them properly in one way or another whether that be in my work or in the process taken to get the work done. What was interesting about the course learning outcomes is that it is not just a set of goals you keep in mind from the beginning of the semester. Rather, the way the curriculum is created, whether we know about these goals from the beginning, we end up reaching them (if we do what we’re supposed to). For instance, the way our reflection papers were designed was that we pick 2 out of 8 of the outcomes and describe how we satisfied those requirements AFTER we had completed the assignment. This just comes to show how it was inevitable to learn them just by taking this course.
In our first assignment which was the memo, it was the first time we had to critically scope into a certain audience. In our previous works in other classes, it wouldn’t have been too much of an inconvenience if we generalized the audience to solely the reader. However, this time we had to actually think about who the reader was. In our memo, we pleaded for affordable textbook pricing. It was crucial for a plea like this to be sent to the correct people. If I send this memo to Nicki Minaj, is it going to help? Probably not. Furthermore, we were also required to develop a firm stance. Our tone would define just how serious our audience takes our request. The frustration in our memo had to be showcased clearly, so the response could be addressed just so seriously and attentively.
In our second assignment which was the How-To instruction guide, my group and I taught the audience how to make a balloon powered car. Again, the audience had to be taken into account here because of the difficulty of the language we used. Furthermore, we had to consider how much the audience knows about the topic itself, and we had to explain the steps accordingly. In addition, in assignment like this, straightforwardness was mandatory, so we had to write without opinion or emotion to get the job done. Poetry wouldn’t be the best way to start a How-To-Guide.
In our third assignment, the technical analysis, I discussed the Raspberry Pi 4, a mini coding computer. The audience had to be taken into account again because I spoke about complex computer and electrical terms, so the people who were reading this had to understand that. Those people were either the ones buying the product or the stores selling them. Regardless, both groups of people should have a basic understanding of the functions of the computer, so the analysis would be clearer to them. This assignment also stressed very heavily on referencing. I would say properly referencing was more work than the actual analysis itself. And as expected, if there is a lot of referencing then there will most likely be a lot of research and this was the case in the technical analysis. To do this assignment effectively, you had to be able to gather the right information on the background of the company, its history, successes, failures, and the interiors and exteriors of the product itself.
In our final assignment, we had to create an invention and propose it to an audience of philanthropists or wealth for its creation. My group and I decided to create a radio-flare system that can be used to signal for help in situations of natural disasters were the power and communication lines are cut out. For this assignment we had to use everything. Our audience was not only a group of funders but they had to be a group of people who understood the situation. Our stance had to be firm and we had to come out confident in the proposal. Our purpose was clear which was to persuade the audience to invest in our idea so we could potentially save lives.
Due to the gap between online learning and return to in person learning, I feel as if there were issues returning into a normal work environment. I feel someone would only prefer online learning if their intention is to get a good grade through unorthodox means. However, overall this semester out of most of your english classes, will give you the most productive leap in your writing skills. Your intentions will change when you write, you’ll be accustomed to writing MUCH more than you need to, and you’ll be able to effectively use different writing styles and techniques to enhance the validity of your work.
