Dear Future Students,

 

My name is Shahjalal Sikder, and I am currently a student at City College. This semester I have been enrolled in a writing for engineering course that revolves around real-life applications of writing in engineering fields. Unlike many of the other english classes that I have previously taken, this class was by far the most unique and relatable. Rather than focusing on reading books and evaluating them, this class applies real life applications to what we should be expecting in the workforce when we graduate. With all the assignments that were given to us, we learned how to incorporate different writing methods and use various aspects of writing to make our compositions even stronger. Since the semester is coming to a close end, it is time to make a self assessment on my experiences from this course.

As stated earlier, there were assignments given to give us exposure to the real world. The four assignments consisted of the memo, the technical description, the lab report, and the technical proposal. To start off the semester, we were given the task of doing the memo, which was like an introductory and short assignment given to us in order to smoothly get used to the dynamics of the class. Since it was the first assignment, it did take a bit to get used to since we were to refer to a textbook and student samples to write. It was also a strange transition in considering different rhetorical situations and genre conventions while creating the memo. The next assignment was the technical description, which was a significantly more demanding assignment. My group and I chose an object and wrote a very detailed description on everything on the object of our choice. The lab report came right after and it was more involved with our group members. We chose a certain issue in the New York City area and addressed it in terms of solutions and a possible experiment to test the issue. Lastly, we were given the technical proposal which was very dependent on the cooperation and teamwork of the group members. We chose an issue in a global perspective then created an application to combat the issue and help people. This assignment would be considered a culmination of all of the assignments we were given, which made it very demanding. 

For each of our assignments, we were to write a reflection which incorporated looking at whether course learning outcomes were fulfilled. There are eight course learning outcomes and each of these assessed our use of different aspects of writing. For each of my previous assignments I had only fulfilled around four or five course learning outcomes, but due to the fact that the last assignment which was the technical proposal incorporated everything we had learned, I had fulfilled all of the course learning outcomes effectively. Throughout the semester, we were assigned to work with our groups and use each other as resources. We had distinct differences when it came to our linguistics but we were able to use those differences to grow our writing. Reading, drafting, revising, editing, and self assessment were all aspects of our wiring procedures for every assignment which enabled us to make our writing better through the help of teacher and peer criticism. When writing our assignments, along with our original writing ideas and conventions, we were also required to take genre, medium and rhetorical situations into account to make our papers more effective towards the audience that we would be targeting. Being involved with collaboration and the social aspect of writing was very important in this class, especially towards the end of the semester. Engaging in genre analysis and making use of multimodal media helped our papers be transformed into different forms and allowed them to be expressed onto different mediums which give it more effectiveness. Writing all these assignments also demanded a stance or a position on the specific topic, allowing us to shape our paper in a way to persuade the readers. Coming up with the evidence needed to support my position and claims required me to find quotes and resources through online databases and credible websites.With the evidence or quotes, I would incorporate it through paraphrasing or directly copying it to my paper but citing it at the end. 

Writing all of the different assignments in the class truly evolved my style of writing in terms of what I consider when coming up with ideas and how I structure it. Prior to this class, I didn’t take into account all of the aspects of writing that I learned in this class. I would just write my essays and get to the point usually. After taking this class, I see the importance of first trying to determine the rhetorical situations of the topic such as the audience then revolving your structure around it so you can effectively target and persuade them. I learned to see deep into writing and why simple conventions can actually play a huge part in conveying a message within a piece of writing. Compared to previous classes, I have also got more proficient in finding evidence that is actually credible through databases and websites, which in turn helped me cite better. Furthermore, since for each assignment we would write a draft at first, this class allowed me to better review the works of my peers. After finalizing the draft and submitting we would always be asked to reflect upon our work to see how the writing process was and what we could do to improve. Lastly, this class has especially helped me become more of a team player. In the work industry, more specifically in engineering and computer science, being able to work with others is very crucial and is an important skill. Through all of the group work, I was able to plan and cooperate with people I would previously have no acquaintance with and create a paper that would satisfy the class requirements. 

In my opinion, the most crucial rhetorical element is the audience, due to the facts that it directly affects the purpose and content of the paper. First determining the audience will allow the writer to see how to structure the paper in a way to target the audience. Once the audience is determined, the writer can make their purpose reflect what the audience would want to hear making the paper more persuasive. Consequently, the writer would include evidence or facts that cater to the audience. 

Towards the end of the semester, COVID-19 unfortunately took the world by storm and ultimately forced us to continue our education remotely. At first, this change was very difficult to get adjusted to as we were not used to it but as the weeks passed on, it was not as bad. Employers usually require workers to work from home which actually gave us an appropriate environment to work in to mimic that of the workforce. No doubt, this change still caused the dynamic of the class to change, in a way that we had to put more effort into having proper communication with the class and with the people whom we worked with. Despite the transition, as a class we were able to do what we can and still move on like it was normal.

Best,

Shahjalal Sikder