Writing for Engineering is far different from your typical English class,it is a class that will definitely be remembered regardless if passed or failed. I would love to rant on how I feel about the class however it is not one I can completely judge wholeheartedly. Between all the course work and the disturbance of social/economic infringes it would not be fair to say I like or dislike this class. Classes to me are ones held between teacher and student face to face where gaps of learning is filled ,so to give an opinion on this class where half of it was surrounded by problems at home would be unfair. Rather I will evaluate the variety of writing done through the course and how each peace of writing helped me develop into who I am today. The course consisted of several pieces of writing with a Formal Letter of Introduction, a Memo, Lab Report Analysis, Technical Description, Final Project & Presentation and All accompanying self-reflection essays. Each of these pieces of writing had a unique way of drafting, revision and publishing giving this class a unique element in the English field. 

Starting with the Memo, this is where I realized this was not your traditional English class and what I have been doing so far would not work within this class. On my memo I received comments along the lines of “You have not followed the format, You seem to have written a letter, Your recommendations are unclear, You have not considered the time on monetary costs nor implications of your proposal”. With these comments it was clear they were all trying to imply the message of you have not done enough.  Being that there was still an opportunity to improve I turned towards my peers, and looked on how they conjured their work. This to me is a usual form of action however in this class it becomes warped for good reason. I followed the formatting of my peer and did not a get a grade too far off from theirs however since their grade was borderline my grade was even lower. I thought to myself this is only the first assignment and I shouldn’t get myself down. Then group discussion were introduced, we were place in groups to give off ideas and improve each others work. On discussion board our comments were reviewed by our professor and where determined to be relevant in the task at  hand, it may of seemed limiting however it was the best case scenario for us students because suggestions left behind were usually helpful.

Next was the lab report analysis, and it consisted of an extra step rather than drafting, revision, and publishing. That step was approval, in order to start drafting 3 submission of lab reports must be approved by our professor. These lab reports were very restrictive with us not being allowed to look at sample lab reports for help. At first it was difficult looking for lab reports relating to a singular topic that fit all restrictions however I finally found something when I started research effects of cigarettes. From there as  group we tried to figure out a format in which we can combine the lab report analysis with the APA formatting. After breaking it down the process of writing the analysis was simple enough so I thought. When receiving the marks i got for the lab report it showed that I did not truly understand the APA formatting and it drastically brought my grade down. My previous English class had us do APA essays which made me believe that a task was something I could however I required somebody to hold my hand through it. Already through two simple grades I saw that I needed to start approaching my work differently and review.

With the next writing piece we had a lot going on during the class. During the time of the Technical descriptions is when we began to switch over to this online course. I am not a fan of the switch however it was definitely deemed necessary for safety. With this change I was no longer able to get clear justification on what was wanted but that was the least of my troubles. With the item I had choose I was very limited in what I could do. They’re are not many scholarly articles on ceiling fans and even though I had one it was difficult to explain what part was what and what they did. For the following weeks I tried working on it and reevaluated if I should just start from scratch but being late as I was I choose to press on. As I watched video after video on technical writing they showed me that I need so much information that I could not gather so the work I submitted seemed mediocre but was honestly my best try. This made me acknowledge my classmates even more because they were able to properly progress through such a transition with little faults.

Finally we have our final project, originally I was looking forward to this one. The final project was to be done as a group and turn in together however it became individual after the change to online classes. I was looking forward to it because it was my best chance to receive higher marks in the class with my peers actually taking the time to help me understand their thinking rather than just saying look at this. While its not good to depend on others because they wont be there forever I was always envious on what they were capable of doing. Putting things together almost instantly their ability to research library sources and their abilities synthesize great paragraphs were all far better than mine even though I felt like I was improving. With the proposal I had to figure out a way that my technical description could help solve a problem. An essay built on essay I struggled with, I wonder how this could turn out. I pressed on with enthusiasm that this writing piece will be the one using my creativity to the max. I created a scenario as if I was an actual owner for a company giving another company a proposal on how to save energy.  The proposal was a different setup but I quickly understood it due to the article sent by our professor. In the article it showed exactly how to set it up an actual guide line. After I created my proposal I put it in a more fun form where I showed it off in a slide show. Another thing improved during my time writing was my ability to switch from docs, to word, to PDF, to slides. While this wasn’t an official engineering class it definitely helped my computer skills.

As you can see this class was a breakdown on my confidence as a writer, and from the ashes I am trying to start a new.  Taking in where I can improve myself from analyzing to punctuality the ability to improve never ceases with me. My professor and classmates where ones who I definitely envied their work and hoped that I could achieve something like it. If not now then later I will most definitely improve regardless if the grading is tough I will have the motivation to strive on.