Megan Golding
May 21, 2023
Writing for Engineering
Prof. Davidow
Theory of Writing
In my first year at The City College of New York, I had to take two different English classes which was a huge adjustment for me considering in elementary, middle, and high school I had the same English class for a whole school year. In my first semester, I had to take freshman composition, which was honestly a continuation of 12th-grade English in my humble opinion especially since it was a seek class, so the professor was even kinder when it comes to grading. The class Writing for Engineering is a complete 360 from what freshman composition was. Writing for Engineering expanded my writing skills more than I can imagine. This class helped me expand my vocabulary and taught me about different topics and genres, that seem complicated on paper. There were 5 different assignments/writings that broaden my horizon. These assignments were The Letter of Introduction, the PSA, a Lab Report Analysis, and a Technical Innovation.
During my Freshman Composition class, I vaguely remember our professor asking us about our writing process. Which hasn’t really evolved since last semester. My theory of writing/method hasn’t changed since middle school ( in retrospect sounds horrible, I truly haven’t grown up at all ). First, I try to look at the rubric and see which part is worth more than the others and then focus on that part. After that, I try to understand the assignment because I’m looking at the rubric not knowing what I must do. After I figure out if I need to research or if is it a free write ( like the Letter of Introduction) or is it a research assignment like the other 4 assignments. Regardless of if it is a free write or research project, I look for some blank paper and start jotting ideas down. I think using a pencil and paper is better than using an iPad/Laptop because it helps you remember what you want, and you can see what it will look like.
In my Writing for Engineering class, we had completely different assignments than in my Freshman Composition class. My first assignment for Writing for Engineering was the Letter of Introduction. For this assignment, I had to write a formal letter that was introducing myself to my professor. She wanted us to introduce ourselves because this class was online and often, she never saw our faces. The format of this assignment was just a regular standard letter format. This assignment was somewhat difficult because I’m not a fan of talking about myself I get very awkward.
The second assignment given was the Technical Description. This assignment was a huge part of our final grade. For this assignment, I had to write about the Apple product AirPods. I had to write about the AirPods’ functions, their uses, and their history. I also had to write a cover page and an outline. I had to write this paper for someone who hasn’t heard of AirPods. This was an interesting experience because I have not done an assignment like this before. It took extremely wrong for me to gather my thoughts because I had to create the assignment in a certain order. I had maybe 3-4 outlines because I will still so unsure about what I wanted to do exactly. Not only I had to find history about AirPods I also had to research Apple’s history. Before, I wasn’t a fan of this assignment due to it being very hard and tedious but looking back at it, it prepared me for what the semester will look like.
The third assignment was a Lab Report Analysis, I’m going to be honest I hate this assignment so much. I don’t think you understand how much stress this one assignment gave me. For this assignment, we had to dissect a lab report piece by piece and compare it. We had to compare a lab report published from a textbook published by Mike Markel in his textbook titled “Technical Description”. This assignment was in the science area, and I wrote about covid vaccines and their side effects. What I found difficult about this assignment was everything god I hate it so much. From, struggling to find sources to try to compare this author’s writings. This assignment made me realize how much I hate lab reports.
The 4th assignment was a group project/presentation, where we had to create a PSA ( Public Service Announcement). Our topic was the Museum of Natural History, and the museums fight to make this earth more sustainable for future generations. During class, we got placed into groups and we voted as a group we wanted to do the Museum of Natural History. Each group member had a role, and my role was the group leader. In my role, I was the main speaker, designer, and researcher. Everyone in my group was extremely helpful and helped me with the work.
Finally, the crown jewel of this class is the Technical Innovation Project. The technical innovation project like the PSA was a group project. For this project, we had to find a topic that can be a business proposal and also can be a technical innovation. Our proposal was to expand cheap Wi-Fi options for lower-income communities to help people of those communities have access to better lives. Like the PSA I was the group leader, I took the initiative by telling my team which part they had to do because this assignment was huge. We all brainstormed together, and we had fun doing the assignment.
Within Writing for Engineering, I believe I was able to hit everyone one of the eight-course learning outcomes, where were explore and analyze, develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies, engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes, understand and use print and digital technologies to address a range of audiences, locate research sources in the library’s databases or archives and on the internet and evaluate them for credibility, accuracy, timeliness, and bias, compose a text that integrates your stance with appropriate sources using strategies such as summary, critical analysis, interpretation synthesis, and argumentation, and practice systematic application of citations conventions.
To conclude, my theory of writing hasn’t changed after this class, but this class has opened my eyes to creating new styles of writing. Hopefully, it helped me to get an A or better in the class. Overall, this class prepares you to have a deep knowledge of writing which not a lot of English classes have.
