The English for Engineers – 21007 G course was one of the most interesting and interactive classes I ever had. At the beginning of the semester, Mrs. Jean-Stern presented eight course learning objectives to the class. These learning objectives would focus on aiding students to write concise and well developed essays that may come across later in our careers. Throughout the course we were tasked to do many assignments, including a technical description, a lab report analysis, and a research paper. After looking over my class work and the learning objectives, I believe I completed most objectives, and improved upon my own reading and writing skills.
My favorite assignment was the technical description as it required me to write extremely detailed instructions about how a machine works. To challenge myself, I decided to pick a difficult topic – How does a Nuclear Reactor Generate Electricity? Through this assignment, I was able to achieve the first learning objective: acknowledging my and others’ range of linguistic differences as resources, and draw on those resources to develop rhetorical sensibility. I interpret this objective being careful with our choice of words. Since the description may be presented to a wide ranged audience, one cannot generalize and must be as specific and clear as possible. I reached this objective by organizing my description in multiple steps and phases, adding vivid descriptions of the reactor’s components, as well as thorough explanation of the component’s purpose and how they work with one another. This assignment also allowed me to achieve the third learning objective: negotiating my own writing goals and audiences expectations regarding conventions of genre, medium, and rhetorical situation. What I believe this objective means is to make the purpose of the paper clear throughout by constantly reflecting on it while writing it. I believe the technical description allowed me to achieve this because I was required to teach others about how a complex mechanical system works. I had to use an active voice instead of passive in order to clearly state my goal (teaching how a nuclear reactor works) as well as what their expectations should be (understanding how a mechanism works or a process is done).
The Lab Report Analysis was essentially a comparison essay between two lab reports. This assignment allowed me to achieve multiple reading objectives. Since it is a comparison essay, I had to pick a stance and therefore achieved the sixth learning objective: formulating and articulating a stance through and in my writing. I believe this means to state a position, which I did by stating that both lab reports did an outstanding job, however, lab report one was concise much better. I came to this conclusion by engaging on objective five: engage in genre analysis and multimodal composing to explore effective writing across disciplinary contexts and beyond. To me, what this objective means is to skillfully analyze any piece of literature and judging it based on its tone, genre, author’s writing style, and more. I achieved this by looking over both lab report’s organization, graphics, and the way information is presented.
The research paper was the last assignment of the semester and I was required to get into a team of three to write a paper that is three thousand words long. The topic that my team and I chose was the future hacking and its impact on society. This assignment took three weeks to complete as it was the longest. Fortunately, I did not work on it alone. I had two partners that worked alongside me. Through this assignment, I was able to achieve four learning objectives. In this assignment, I was able to achieve the second learning objective: enhance strategies for reading, drafting, revising, editing, and self-assessment. In short terms, this objective states to review the paper and fix any errors we may have done while writing the first draft. Although I had achieved this objective on every previous assignment, I believe that it was best achieved in this one as it was the longest and I did most of the editing. In addition to this, I also achieved the fourth learning objective: develop and engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes. I interpret this objective as being able to work well in a team when writing a paper together, which to me is the essence of the research paper. Since we all shared a common interest, this objective was completed from the start.
When writing a research paper it is required to have multiple sources in order to enforce your argument and backup your data. Although our topic is quite recent, finding information on it was possible through the CCNY online database. With the data found, we had achieved the seventh learning objective: practice using various library resources, online databases, and the Internet to locate sources appropriate to your writing projects. In addition to this, we also engaged on the eighth learning objective: strengthening our source using practices. What this means is to introduce and explain sources through different methods. In order to achieve this, we followed the four I’s rule, Introduce, Include, Integrate, and Interpret. Through this method citing sources became clearer for us to write and for the reader to comprehend.
Overall, the English for Engineers – 21007 G course was extremely useful as I was able to improve on my writing. Moreover, the assignments completed throughout the semester – Technical Description, Lab Report Analysis, and Research Paper – allowed me to accomplish every learning objective of the class. There were eight learning objectives in total, and I believe that I was able to achieve each after reflecting back on my engagement with the course material. The technical description allowed me to write in such a descriptive way that I was able to convey my goal and information clearly. The lab report allowed me to look over different texts and determine which is best by comparing their details, tones, and format. The research paper allowed me to work in a team, develop and support an argument, and integrate multiple sources.
