Sylvia Path said “And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” Writing for Engineers is a writing class specifically made for engineers. Although engineering is a field of math and science, the work field requires a lot of writing. We learned to write a resume and cover letter which is necessary for finding a job, an interview report about an interview with a real engineer to learn about the work we would do in the future, a lab report which taught us to do research using the CCNY library resources, a group proposal project which taught us collaboration and how to effectively persuade our audience, and a technical description which taught us to write a detailed explanation of a process or invention. We used the CCNY library resources  to research evidence from different sources for our assignments and learned to cite in APA style. We also used the textbook to understand the assignments.

For the resume and cover letter, we wrote our experiences, skills, and other qualifications.  Cover letter and resume is the first thing recruiters look at before one is considered for a job, so I had to consider the audience and purpose for which I was writing, the audience being the recruiters and the purpose being to convince them that I am qualified for the job. We learned to customize the cover letter and resume to the job posting that we found online and that we wanted to apply for. By looking at the requirements on the job posting, we highlighted the skills and qualities that matched them. Furthermore, I read the Technical Communication textbook to understand and get ideas for the resume and cover letter template.

For the interview report, we had to find a professional working in a field related to our major. My interview with Charles Shim gave me a glimpse into how it would be like to have my first engineering job. I was especially excited when the professor assigned the interview for us because I’ve always wanted to speak with a practicing mechanical engineer to see how it’s like for him, whether the work was what he expected as a student, and if it’s what I wanted to do. It turns out it is exactly what I want to do. I, like my interviewee, love designing and building inventions. Moreover, the experience was made much easier when our professor created a discussion thread on Blackboard, where we could post our interview questions to give each other ideas.

For the lab report, we determined the most likely outcome for the sum of rolling two dice. While it was a fairly simple experiment, we learned to find similar research papers on the same topic and compare. We were also required to cite in APA style. I used information from different sources to analyze the results of my own experiment. The lab report is a mostly straightforward report which consists of an introduction, method and materials, results, analysis, and a conclusion section.

For the proposal, we had to find a problem at CCNY and come up with a viable solution. Working on the proposal was an interesting experience because I had to work with other people to come up with an idea and present that idea to a room full of people. It felt like we were the marketing team at an official company. In the beginning, we didn’t know what we were doing, but through each of our hard work and participation, we came up with great ideas for the problems we found. Especially with our survey, we had a bit of trouble. The responses for our first survey were vague and somewhat neutral. But one of our group members came through and decided to make annotate survey, which presented our problems more clearly. Also, my previous experiences had made me come to expect group members who don’t put in as much effort but this team was amazing and all contributed to our amazing proposal.

For the technical description, we had to describe an invention or a process in detail. I chose to write about four legged robots and how the legs are made to move just like an animal because the topic is fascinating to me. Here, the consideration of audience and purpose is crucial because leg locomotion is complicated and hard to understand. The audience were my peers who were mostly freshmen and sophomores so they didn’t have much knowledge about robotics. My purpose was to clearly explain how the legs are designed in a way to make the robots move with agility. Additionally, a lot of research was necessary because it’s a big topic. I used the CCNY online library to find peer reviewed articles about my topic.

Besides the assignments, we had many grammar lessons. We learned to use commas, semicolons, etc. We also learned to use quotations as hooks for our writings, to write concisely, and to present clearly. Moreover, we learned to revise our writing efficiently. Our professor especially highlighted the consideration of audience and purpose because without that consideration, our writing is pointless. Words should have a meaning and direction to them.

Writing is crucial in any field of work and like Plath says, anything can be made interesting when you write about it. Writing for Engineers was an interesting adventure that I enjoyed immensely. I intend to use all that I learned in my future classes and in my professional life as well.

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