My name is Fatima Moflehi and I am an undergraduate student at the city college of new york aiming to major in Biomedical Engineering. During this writing for engineering course I have learned many useful tips and grew skills that would help me in my pursuit to become an engineer. In this course we’ve practiced our skills in writing letters, memos, product reviews, lab report analysis, technical descriptions, proposals, and collaborative projects. This portfolio aims to show these works and how they helped me enhance my writing abilities.
With these course works i’ve gained multiple new skills in writing such as proper APA formatting other than citations, how to give a useful and proper peer review, how to organize and write a memo, how to critique products by using criterias and properly evaluating the necessary aspects of a product, further my skill in research by analyzing the structure of reports and what requirements they should follow, using technical language to describe an objects and its components, how to write a proposal and what it should include, and finally how to engage in collaborative projects and utilize peer reviews.
The Formal Letter of Introduction taught me length and structure in my writing. In my introductory letter I learned how to clearly state my intent and introduce myself in formal writing. In terms of length I learned how to convey essential information using feedback I received on my first attempt where I did not include enough information to communicate my subject properly.
The product review essay helped me explore the expository writing genre where I touched on evaluative and persuasive writing elements when reviewing my product. I learned how to evaluate my product under specific criterias and touched on descriptive language where I learned to use sensory details to help my audience understand my product’s value and functionality.
The lab report analysis essay helped me enhance strategies for revising and editing as well as practice my library resources to locate sources appropriate to my writing projects. When finding the lab reports I used the ccny library search engine as well as used the library assistance on campus and it was a first time experience where I learned how to filter certain terms and what keywords I look for in the reports. This skill was delved into because of the repeated disapproval of the lab reports I submitted for the lab report approval discussion post. I repeatedly submitted research reports and case reports so I learned how to find the required lab reports for my writing. I also enhanced my editing in lab report formatting with the lab report analysis criteria checklist where I saw how each part of a lab report has requirements that should be met to help make sure the writer’s work is communicated and presented well.
The Technical Description assignment has supported my growth in writing by improving my APA format and citation skills and organizational structure in writing. It has strengthened my source use practices such as citing my sources. Looking at Purdue owl I learned how to properly master citing in APA as well as formatting. For example, I learned how the main title is bold without italic and the second heading is bold with italic. I also learned organizational structure in my writing breaking down the parts starting from a title page, table of contents, background then finally getting into describing my product from main parts to the subparts.
The peer reviews for the product review, lab report analysis, and technical description helped me acknowledge others’ range of linguistic differences as resources and draw on those resources to develop rhetorical sensibility. Engaging and seeing the different outlines and drafts and reading the comments from my peers as well as the professor on the aspects in which I lacked or did well on helped me evaluate my own writing and edit it to make sure I meet the requirements as much as possible. I’ve repeatedly checked others’ outlines for my assignments and when we looked through outlines in class I made sure to follow the proper ones by example. Getting feedback helped me reflect on my writing and figure out how to improve them which is something I appreciated the most in this course.
The memos for the product review, lab report analysis, and technical description helped me practice memo structure as it was a new form of writing for me. Each memo helped me reflect on each assignment to see how I met the required goals and what struggles I encountered while writing that can be avoided for my next assignments.
The proposal for the collaborative project was a new experience for me and it helped me negotiate my own writing goals and audience expectations regarding conventions of genre, medium, and the rhetorical situation. When writing the proposal and structuring, In order for our audience to fully understand and see every aspect of our project proposal I followed a format where I had a summary, introduction, proposed program with design and technical description, innovation process that included the conceptualization, implementation, and marketing of our project invention, and conclusion, appendices and finally references. This writing structure was very new to me but it made me understand the multi level aspects of a proposal and what questions need to be answered for a proposed program.
The semi-weekly self reflections gave me an opportunity to use the reflection prompts to properly look back on what I learned from the week and understand recurring themes and help me internalize assignment objectives and requirements when talking about the rhetorical analysis of my course work.
I hope to utilize these learned course outcomes and skills in my future writing. This class has helped me gain new insights and approaches to my writing that I’ve never experienced before. Within each assignment the multi layers of outlines, drafts, peer reviews, and memos helped me reach utmost perfection in my writing that will stick with me for the rest of my pursuit in the field of engineering.
