Name: Wen Qi Zhang

Date: 05/05/24

Course: Writing For Engineering (WFE)

Professor: Corinne Shearer

Journey of Technical Writing

The entire semester has been quite a blast. When I first started the Writing for Engineering course, the first impression I had was that the course was going to be about research into different engineering fields or what one needs to know regarding the writing process involved in Engineering. I was surprised to find how similar the course was to English 101, but the topic was more in-depth with the engineering field. This semester was full of projects and assignments that pushed me out of my comfort zone. It challenged not only my critical thinking and writing skills but also my ability to independently research scholarly articles and interpret those articles within my writing. Every assignment given taught us what we would expect to know and write in any engineering-related field we go to. Assignments like POP, Technical Description, and Project Proposal are all assignments that will prepare us for what lies ahead when we enter the engineering industry. Overall, this semester further revealed my lack of knowledge and skills as I continue to improve myself by completing the assignments and following the Course Learning Outcome.

My writing journey began with the assignment “Professional Opportunity Packet (POP)” which is knowing how to write a cover letter and a resume tailored to a specific person or program. Most of this writing deeply involved my opinion, my skills, and how I would be a good fit for my chosen internship program. The internship I chose was the NJ Transit (Intern: Equipment Design & Engineering). Writing a resume wasn’t much of a challenge, but the hard part was writing the cover letter. 

It was through this assignment that I learned to “Negotiate my own writing goals and audience expectations regarding conventions of genre, medium, and rhetorical situation.” I first researched the criteria that the internship was looking for and then wrote out my experience. I specifically chose highlights that will showcase why I’m fit for the position and how I will meet their expectations. For example, from the list of requirements, the internship was looking for someone who had an understanding of the mechanical processes, worked in a self-directed manner, interacted with the team, possessed good math, writing, and presentation skills, and had good knowledge of Microsoft Office such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. I then answer my qualifications by talking about my skills like creating websites, usage of SOLIDWORKS, and my experience working outside as a team in an unfamiliar environment. After that, I finished off by re-emphasizing my intention to be a part of this opportunity and left behind my contact info. Throughout this cover letter, I tried to be as formal as possible and not rude in any way, for I want to show my sincerity to the person, whom I’m writing and draw their attention. Given that the whole point of this assignment is to write a cover letter and a resume for a specific job/internship opportunity, I learned a lot about how to format my writing professionally to portray my intention to the audience without sounding lackluster.

After the POP assignment came the Technical Description, the idea behind this assignment was to write a description of an existing product of our choice. An advertisement, textbook, manual script, etc, are all examples of a technical description. This an important assignment, in my opinion, because there will come a time when we will have to introduce our product or someone else to the public if we continue in the engineering field. For the product I’m writing about, I chose a telescope; the type astronomers use to observe the stars. Given that this assignment will be heavily based on individual research, this assignment is where I first engaged in how to “practice using various library resources, online databases, and the internet to locate sources appropriate to your writing projects.” Research is a necessary skill that any engineer and scientist would need to know for any topic, and this skill is involved throughout all the assignments this semester, especially in this and the follow-up assignment. Through online research, I learned many facts about telescopes as well as their history. One of which I learned is how telescopes used by astronomers, are divided into three types: refractor, reflector, and catadioptric. For every new knowledge I learned from different sources, I utilized them in my technical description, and, of course, I cited and referenced those pieces of information to give credit to the sources.  

In addition to researching info on my product, I also practice “Formulating and articulating a stance through and in your writing.” The point of a technical description is to present the product to the public or a specific group of people, thus it’s necessary to formulate our writing to appeal to those audiences. My audience is astronomers or scientists who study astrology, therefore, throughout my technical description, I emphasize highly the advantages of the telescope and why having a telescope will be of great importance to them. At the end of this assignment, I was satisfied with what I did and learned many facts about the telescope. The hardest part of this assignment would probably be formatting and organization because I found out that depending on how the information is presented it can seriously affect the overall flow of the text.

Having proficient research skills is highly important throughout this semester, but what’s even more significant was knowing how to utilize those pieces of information in the writing. Unlike the previous assignment, the third assignment was a group project, where we were to create a proposal of our choice tailoring to a specific group or person.

Given that it was a group project, it’s essential that we “Develop and engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes”. For my team’s project proposal, we decided to introduce a new biking system where one can earn points and rewards while biking to incentivize more biking activity. The assignment was a long collaborative experience, where, as a team, we each had a specific section that we needed to shudder in making our project proposal. Although we were responsible for our sections, we also helped out with each other whenever we needed to, but most of the time, we just focused on our own. I was grateful when Riya and Mohammad helped out with adding to the Method when I was stuck on how our point system was going to work. Thanks to their advice, I was able to roughly come up with an idea of how the point system is going to work. Working together was quite a novelty and had advantages that working individually does not have.

Besides the social aspect, this project also “Strengthen my source uses and practices (including evaluating, integrating, quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, synthesizing, analyzing, and citing sources)”. For example, when doing the literature review, I practice paraphrasing specific quotes from the article I found through online research and follow up with my evaluation of the information I learned. One of the articles I used was from the US Environment Protection Agency. Through the source, I learned that transportation creates the most greenhouse gas emissions by 28 percent due to the increase in the use of automobiles. I connected this information to the idea that automobiles were the grandest source of air pollution, thus a decrease in the usage of such vehicles would be wise, and a better substitution would be riding bicycles, for it is not only pollution-free but also regulates one’s health. 

Overall, throughout the whole semester, I feel that I have achieved almost all of the course learning outcomes throughout each phase. I learned a lot from the feedback and writing from others. It’s through the help of my class and teacher that it “Enhance my overall strategies for reading, drafting, revising, editing, and self-assessment.”For example, in the peer review, one of my classmates commented on how I should incorporate a security measure in my point system for the project proposal. I found that advice to be very enlightening for I never considered that point, and provided me with a new direction to work on in my project proposal. At the end of the day, I realized that all the assignments were somewhat connected. Each assignment taught and helped me address new learning objectives and improve what I had previously learned. In addition, the feedback from my classmates and professor was appreciated for helping me improve my writing and making me realize what I was lacking.