Nadia Nuru                                                                                                                                                                                                     12/10/19

 

My understanding About Writing:Self Reflection

 

There are many objectives that I’ve learned through Writing for Engineering course. I’ve learned that writing is very essential in the field of engineering. Writing is used in every engineering field such as Biomedical, Mechanical, as well as computer science. There are many different types of writing used in the  field such as constructing a research report, email, text, lab reports etc. Throughout the course, I’ve come across many types of writing such as writing a resume, cover letter, lab report, technical description, and a research proposal. These writings have built my understanding of the way engineers write.

 

Writing and organizing a resume and a cover letter was one of the most important topics that I’ve learned in Writing for Engineering course. A resume is a document that consists important information about a person. A resume is used to get an individual a internship that he/she is interested in. On a resume, a person’s name, address and contact has to be presented. There persons information needs to be shown on a resume because the interns that are hiring needs  to know who the person is and a way to get in contact with them. An introductory paragraph is also included in a resume because it summarizes the most important thing about the person. Education , interests, and experience are also factors that need to be added in a resume because it shows interns to know about your education, skills and what you experienced in the past. A cover letter is similar to resume but it’s different. A cover letter is a letter which tells interns about yourself. A cover letter has to conclude that you want to hear back or have an interview with the interns that are hiring .

 

An informational interview report was another important type of writing that I’ve learned. For this assignment, I had to conduct an interview meeting with a Biomedical engineering. I had a difficult time getting in contact with a biomedical engineering. I used many resources such as the City College of New York engineering facility website and job posting website in order to contact an engineer. I sent out many emails but I didn’t get in touch with anyone. After searching, I decided to go to the Biomedical Engineering Department located in the Groove School of Engineering building. At the Biomedical engineering department, I meet Professor Wong in her office and kindly asked her in she had time for a quick interview. Professor Wang gave me approximately 15 minutes of her time to ask her a few questions about what made her interested in studying Biomedical engineering and choosing that career. After the interview, I was then prepared to write my interview report.I used my notes that I jotted down from Professor Wong’s responds to write the report. Furthermore, I used many writing skills that often learn and practice in class to help me write the report correctly. Punctuation and grammar rules learned in class impacted the outcome of my report. I learned how to quote, paraphrased, and use proper punctuation marks in the right form.

 

Another piece of writing that I wrote in this course was a Lab report. In this assignment, I had to make a lab report which is similar to the reports that engineers do.The purpose of conducting this particular experiment is to see which sum of two dice being rolled will have the highest probability of rolls. The experiment also proves the theory of probability because a dice have six sides, which means that there will be six different effects to be observed for every sequence in this experiment. An abstract,introduction,materials, methods,results, analysis and conclusion where some of the lab strategies that consists in my writing.

 

A research proposal was another major assignment that I wrote in this course. I worked on this assignment in a group of three peers. For the proposal, we had to choose a topic that we wanted to propose and make a change on campus as a group. Changing the printing system was what we proposed to. We wanted to change the way the printing system worked by installing a software that allows students to swipe their school ID instead of going up to that one particular computer to login before getting access to print. We’ve noticed that the computer login in system wastes a lot of time and  very unorganized, so to install this new system will help solve the problem. Group work is one of the course objectives that I’ve used for this assignment. My experience in working in a group to come up with a proposal was a bit confusing. First, we had difficulty in coming up with a group name and a good topic. Communication and doing our actual part of the assignment was also hard to keep up with. When we had opportunities to work on it in class, the work wasn’t done due to some vague reasons. The topic that we were working on was also off because it was being changed. Also, the parts that we each had, the task weren’t done correctly. In addition, group members were absent, which messed up the group because the work we did on the last day we had a chance to work together, we gathered what we concluded to do however, it was changed at last because of the absence.

 

A Technical description was the last type of writing that I’ve learned in writing for engineering. Experimental and analytical apparatus was the theme I chose to research on. In my writing, I explained the role in which medical equipment impacts the field of Biomedical engineering. I provided a brief summary of what Biomedical engineering is, where biomedical engineers work and their purpose in this field. After handing in my technical description paper, I had to present to the class on what I wrote in my description.

 

Punctuation and grammar practices that we’ve often learned in class have positively shaped my writing. In class, I’ve gained more knowledge about punctuation, and different types of sentences. I’ve learned the difference between run- on and a fragment sentences. Moreover, I’ve learned where to place quotation marks, period, semicolon, colon, etc in the right place in a sentence. Many students work that had many errors we displayed to us in class so we can make corrections. After having many practices, I was tested with a grammar quest in order to know my knowledge.

 

Course objectives such as information literacy,citation, use of technology have contributed an important role throughout this course. For the lab report assignment, using an scholarly article was required. I used the City Collection of New York online library to help me find the appropriate article to use as a resource. The library has many databases and an academic one search. After searching for an article for my report, I found an article that I thought would be valid for my report. The article that used was  “The probability distribution of the sum of several dice: Slot Applications” by Singh, Ashok K, Dalpatadu, Rohan J. and Lucas, Anthony F. Many of my assignments required citations. A citation is a quotation which reference to a source of information. The citation that I used was APA style. APA format citations ordered by author’s last  name, date of the source, and then the url. APA citation can be seen in my technical description and in my lab report. Technology helped me a lot throughout the entire semester. Blackboard was very useful when I needed to know what assignment to work on, and the due dates of assignments. I used blackboard to access my the syllabus. Technology also helped me with researching information for my assignments.

 

In conclusion, writing for engineering has taught me that writing has a purpose. We write  to express ourself , provide information, and to create a literary work. Engineers write many different types of writings. Without writing, it wouldn’t be possible for engineers to get their job done. Overall, the writings that have worked on throughout the course are similar to the kind of writing I would be doing in the future.