Aaron ramirez

Prof. Rodwell

Writing For Engineers

Due 5/3/2023

Throughout this course, I picked up valuable skills that will impact my academic and future career many times going forward. Skills like how to research, analyze, reflect, and receive and give peer feedback will undoubtedly prove to be valuable tools to be successful.

For my formal letter of introduction paper, I learned how to address a formal letter to someone. What we were taught and what we learned here was straightforward, we simply learned how to write a formal letter addressed to someone and with a polite tone, how to write a header, and how to conclude a letter. As an engineer of any sort, you will most likely be working in a team, hence communication and professionalism are important. Learning how to write a formal letter to write to a boss or coworker is an important skill I will take with me into my career. In the future, I will remember how to organize my header and conclusion, address the recipient, and maintain a proper tone throughout my letter.

In my product review essay, I learned how to review a product without bias, ultimately helping me learn to write in an unbiased tone. negotiate your own writing goals and audience expectations regarding conventions of genre, and rhetorical situation which was to give my audience an unbiased review of a product so that they could assess for themselves the true worth of the product. I learned that this was the expectation of a product review because my audience will be people who are skeptical about the product and want to confirm their opinions on the product. Therefore, my purpose in writing the product review essay was to fulfill my audiences expectations, not just review the product. Keeping in mind my audience doesn’t require practice but is something I need to use in my writing in the future to fulfill my purpose better when writing.

During my revision of my product review essay, the product review draft, I learned to keep in mind the rhetorical situation of my writing, mostly the purpose. I enhanced my ability to identify and adhere to the rhetorical situation of my writing to communicate purposefully and effectively. By remembering my purpose to give my readers an unbiased report of a product while simultaneously subtly recommending the product, I was able to make my tone unbiased while letting the product sound good with facts.

In my product review memo, I learned how to write a memoir on a piece of writing, to review/reflect on what was, wasn’t, and what could’ve been done. In writing my first memoir for this course I learned to cover all bases when it comes to writing a memoir. Meaning not just to reflect on how I felt when writing the piece, but also on what I did and didn’t do before giving my thoughts on the piece and concluding with ways I think I can improve. Going forward from this memoir I understood that more can be said in a memoir to convey a more meaningful report/reflection on my memoirs.

While searching for labs in my lab report analysis essay, I learned how to analyze text and use that analysis to compare labs. The lab report analysis assignment taught me how to objectively compare papers considering the rhetorical situation. I engaged in genre analysis to explore effective writing between multiple pieces of the same genre, and I developed in this area by objectively acknowledging the good and bad of lab reports in my essay. Going forward, I am now able to analyze and evaluate lab reports well enough to give valuable insight on one after a read.

As for my lab report analysis draft, this revision of my lab report analysis helped me to be thorough in my analysis, I noticed more things that taught me about what to look for when reviewing Lab reports. I engaged in genre analysis as I was revising this draft which allowed me to build a criterion to objectively rate the labs I read. This taught me to outline my goals and criteria ahead of time so that I don’t make the mistake of not focusing on the right things when analyzing a Lab report. This is a important skill to take into assignments or tasks in the future that may be new to me, helping me to overcome project/writing goals in the future.

For my lab report analysis essay, I was able to point out a weakness in my LRA assignment. In writing my LRA memo I realized that the lab reports I used weren’t what my professor would have idealized in the sense that they were mostly all sub-par. They were different really in style choices but nothing else. They simply were different in what they missed which made my analysis very linear and proves that I lacked the ability to effectively research since in this instance I could not find 3 good lab reports. Thanks to this LRA memo assignment I was able to acknowledge that I put myself in a disadvantageous position when I chose lab reports poorly. In realizing that I learned to be more deliberate in my research early on to make the rest of my work easier.

The Technical Description is relevant to my growth as a writer because I practiced careful observation, research, and analysis to complete this document. One thing I learned is how to collect useful information that is relevant to my rhetorical situation which suggests that I should be detailed and complete in my research to accomplish the goal of this piece. One specific thing I learned was some resources I could use like the sources CCNY provides or for one part YouTube came in handy.

During the revision process of my T.D, in other words my technical description draft, I realized that some of my sources weren’t credible. Revising my T.D. taught me to check my source’s credibility before I use them in a document that should be factual. Using wrong information in a document like the T.D. would damage my ethos and to the reader make my entire T.D. untrustworthy and useless to them. Double checking things like this is crucial in a professional setting and would cost me a lot more than a poor mark.

The memo of my technical description helped me reflect on what I could’ve done better like for example include dimensions of or at least estimates of dimensions of some of the parts listed. When writing this memo, I was able to identify what I could’ve done to better fulfill the rhetorical situation of this piece. If I had included dimensions for example, it would’ve been more useful to someone trying to recreate or repair the product. I learned not only to be critical of my writing regarding the rhetorical situation but also to fulfill my purpose fully by keeping in mind what my audience wants out of my piece.

The collaborative project proposal/presentation helped me to improve my ability to research a variety of concepts for example the cost of materials at wholesale price etc. and gave me a lot of insight on how to deliver a presentation like how to not bore your listeners and keep them engaged. In writing the collaborative project I learned that the audience expected me to advertise and then full proof my proposal to them and that I should write to accomplish both things in that order.

All of my reflection memo’s in general let me reflect in writing my shortcomings and strengths as a writer, helping me realize what I need to improve. I enhanced my strategies for revising through reflection memos by revising my work with the purpose of acknowledging difficulties and producing strategies to ensure that I won’t have the same problem in the future.

The semi-weekly reflections relate to my writing growth because it is a collection of reflections that talk about writing growth over the course of the semester. This helped me to acknowledge some of my shortcomings along the way like for example my lack of details in my Technical Description due to lack of research which helped me improve my rhetorical sensibility of logos in my writing.

Not doing the labor logs assignment made me realize that I lacked discipline as a student. Not completing this assignment made me realize the importance of being organized and focused on your studies. I realized that I should be pursuing my education properly as a student, and part of that is doing what my professor expects, performance aside.

As a college student I learn things every day that could very well save my career in the future. So long as the lessons taught to me are lessons learned of course. Over the course of this semester, I can certainly use knowledge of sending letters, considering my purpose and audience in my writing, being organized, and double checking my work. All of which are important tools taught to me early on that I will be remembering years from now.