As this semester comes to an end, it is time to self-reflect on oneself work. Before this class, I haven’t had a writing course in 3 years. It took some time to get back into the grind of writing in an essay format. This semester, we worked on many different assignments such as a letter of introduction, Lab Report analysis, technical description, and Engineering proposal. We accomplished all the course learning objectives that can help prepare us for the professional world with each project.

During our first peer review of the lab report, I learned many things about my writing. We evaluate each other’s work during the peer review and offer constructive criticism. As I was reading and editing a peer’s paper, I noticed a lot of critical points I missed out on. One of the things I saw and was pointed out to me was that I didn’t in-text citation correctly. By reading my peer’s papers, I understood how to cite correctly in text. Another flaw I noticed was that I did not provide explanations for some of the claims I made. Something else that I used from my peers was to italicize the titles of the lab reports instead of quoting them.

In the course of this semester, I have noticed improvements in many different aspects. One thing I seem to have an issue with is drafting an essay. I tend to overthink when I’m writing. Since we had many blackboard assignments, it made me learn to improve my drafting and editing strategies. Instead of rereading each sentence, I learned how to free-write and edit the work afterward. Even though I have to remind myself to stop overthinking from time to time, I have noticed an increase in productivity in my writing.

One huddle that I had to overcome I never thought of was the idea of writing for your audience. Before the lab report assignment, I thought this only pretends to be the jargon you use when writing for a specific audience. While revising my first draft of the lab report and writing the technical description, I have learned that it pretends to be more than that. For example, I used first and third person when I didn’t need to. This is an issue because readers of a technical paper are more interested in scientific facts. I was able to use this lesson recently since I had to create a user manual for my job.

There weren’t just solo projects this semester; we worked in a group to create a specific engineering innovation for the engineering proposal. During this project, we were split into groups of four people. The groups had to create an engineering proposal with two components a written proposal and a YouTube presentation. This gives a chance to develop writing processes in a group setting. My group’s first thing was to write out an outline of which member would be responsible for each part. After that, each member submitted their work to a shared drive so that the rest could revise and edit their writing. I feel like this was the best way because it saved time, and three people were revising and editing your work. If there was less of a time restriction, we could have worked together to write each part so it could be a more consistent voice. I would have liked to work on another project this way because I could pull from my group member for ideas when I was stuck.

As we all know that writing is just one form of communication. And throughout this class, we had an excellent opportunity to use many of the different forms. We all know that a picture is worth a thousand words, and we utilize this in multiple various assignments. The first time we utilized it was during the technical description. We use it to assist the reader in visualizing what we are describing. If we didn’t include pictures, it would have been more challenging for the reader to have a clear image of what we are describing. Another time we had to include photos was the engineering proposal. Just like the technical description, we use it to assist the reader. However, it was slightly more critical since the objects we are talking about are inventions that don’t have any pictures associated with them already. If a picture is worth a thousand words, I wonder how many words a video is worth. As mentioned before, each group was responsible for creating a video about their innovations.

It is essential to formulate a stance through your writing when technical writing. I asked myself, “what is the purpose” with every assignment given this semester. There were many times when it was hard for me to articulate through my writing. I felt like during the lab report, I had to keep myself from veering off of original thoughts.  With that being said, this is one of the objectives I need to keep in mind while writing in the future.

Even though researching information is a big part of my job as a production engineer, I have learned essential tools for locating appropriate sources for writing assignments. Before the lab report, I never used academic journals, and now I know the abundance of information they hold. And with that, it is important to understand how to differentiate appropriate sources from the others. It was overwhelming when it was time to look for the two lab reports. Another time research was essential for a project was for the engineering proposal. It was a little different since we weren’t limited to just academic journals. And with that comes additional challenges. The first one would be learning how to differentiate legitimate sources from others. You should keep your eye out for whether the author is a trusted authority on the subject, whether sources are cited and unbiased, and where the source is published. I didn’t have any issues finding the information since I have a background in working with drones and electronics.

This course’s last objective was to “strengthen your source use practices.” I felt like I was able to work on some more than others. Such quoting, summarizing, and citing sources was extensively used in many of the projects, so I was able to get a good understanding of them. And some like analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating. I feel like I need more time to be more coherent when using them to strengthen my statements.

One question I think everyone should ask themselves before or after a writing class is “what is writing.” If we check the writing definition, it states “the act or art of forming visible letter of characters.” However, that touches the surface of what is writing. First of all, writing is a skill we need to culture and grow. Unlike a lot of things writing needs always be worked on and improved. And no matter what media you use, a chalkboard, clay tablets, or a computer to meet to communicate information. Writing also allows the writer to create something more polished since it can be edited and revised. It is a type of communication that can withstand the test of time. And that is why we spend a significant amount of our academic careers learning about writing so that we can share our thoughts even though we are gone.

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