Welcome to my end of semester portfolio. 

Preface: 

The following work will take on a more casual form of writing but will continue to maintain structure in order to allow for a better reading experience. 

Introduction:

Writing For Engineers, a course that felt like no other so far. Introducing foreign concepts to me ranging from a Technical description, and a Technical report, to our final Group Research Proposal. From an outsider’s perspective, all of these seem daunting and would be rather odd to take on with no prior knowledge. This is the exact situation I found myself in when first hearing about what our future assignments would entail. However; through the use of a variety of different methods of review and different methods of conducting research. Such as consist Peer review, lectures regarding how to navigate through mountains of knowledge in the library, and class meetings with group members to further collaborate and further establish our ideas. These are only but the most notable strategies that we used in order to further establish our abilities in writing and communicating. I will go into more depth later on when speaking about the specific cases in which I had put the knowledge I had gained into practice. 

This would all cumulate and help achieve the learning outcomes that were set for us and for the goals we had set to reach on our personal end. The learning outcomes vary in goals from, being capable of collaborating alongside other students writing styles in order to create a more established message in our writing, improving our ability to work to further improve our revising process, and much more which I will also elaborate on upon when speaking about different examples. 

When reading the following, I would say that it is important to note how my view has changed from when I had written the work being described, my reflection afterward, and my current position now. 

Part 1: Technical Description: 

• Learning outcomes that had been achieved in this assignment: 
• Enhance strategies for reading, drafting, revising, editing, and self-assessment.
• Negotiate your own writing goals and audience expectation regarding conventions of the genre, medium, and rhetorical situation. 
• Practice using various library resources, online databases, and the internet to locate sources appropriate to your writing projects. 

The Technical description was an assignment that had really set the tone for the coming semester. While I had somewhat prepared at the time for the assignment, seeing as we were being thrown right in for the most part. I can easily say it had given me a rude awakening. We will go more in-depth when looking at my draft and final versions. 

 

As you can see from my draft, I had many ideas that I wanted to incorporate and quite frankly it would have taken me a long time to get to them all. While working on the assignment, I met with Prof Nicola Mcdonald. The meeting itself had given me lots of constructive criticism, and it allowed me to narrow down the scope of my work and further allowed me to pinpoint exactly who it is my target audience. Some notes that I had taken related to, while the main point I was taking on was, why do CPUs heat up? Why must I take on other points such as the GPU and PSU? This allowed me to actually made focus on the inner workings of the CPU solely and only make footnotes to give some more context relating to other functions within the computer. As you will see soon this would allow me to give even more information regarding the actual CPU instead of focusing on other parts. 

Another note that I had taken during our conference would relate to my audience and that when I do focus on the more complex parts relating to the CPU I should give more context regarding the parts being described. At the same time, I should make sure to specify my audience exactly. To do this I would simply add a blurb to the beginning. This way it would prevent some confusion in the reader.
Lastly, I was told to organize my writing in a way that would allow for a greater flow for the reader. This was more self-explanatory and I was able to do so resulting in the final version being made. 

The final version as follows brings about a clean flow to it and with it being broken up into several different parts can let the reader choose the parts that are more important to them. 

In the end, there is also my reflection on the assignment around the time when I had completed it. This would give further insight into my thought process on the work itself. 

To bring this all back together and answer the learning outcomes that were set at the beginning of this section. 

• “Enhance strategies for reading, drafting, revising, editing, and self-assessment.”
  • This being the first major assignment we have definitely served as a stepping stone and introduction was what was to come in the future. In regards to how I was capable of enhancing my strategies, a major component would be that my work was read over by someone else and used the information that they had given me. I was able to change the direction in which the paper was heading towards. After said change had occurred, I further read over my work and removed unnecessary parts in order to allow for a more fluid transition. Eventually leading to me finally being happy with the verdict that I had reached. 
• “Negotiate your own writing goals and audience expectation regarding conventions of the genre, medium, and rhetorical situation.”
  • I can say with certainty that I had to change and adapt my work in order to actually complete it. Throughout the paper, I attempt to avoid sticking with a more ridge and boring approach. This was difficult seeing as I wanted to make sure that I was getting the fact straight across. However, my audience is more aimed at those in high school or people who have just sparked an interest in the topic of, “What makes this computer work?” To bring up the point from earlier, my meeting regarding this paper with Prof Nicola gave me insight as to how I should go about presenting a topic to the audience I had chosen. 
• “Practice using various library resources, online databases, and the internet to locate sources appropriate to your writing projects.”
  • It goes without saying that this, and all the major assignments, that would follow, had lots to do with outside research. Seeing as my topic was asking the question, why do CPUs generate heat?  I would have to delve into the field of hardware engineering and as such, I had to read up on the material that surrounded it. This would lead me to read through many pages of a college entry-level book that gave an in-depth look at how CPUs function and what they are made of. At the time of reading through the book, there was a lot of information to take in but only so much of it would be able to stay with me for this technical description. After much time I was able to stick with the components that related to the question I was asking. 

To wrap up this portion, I must say that while I am happy with my final results. I later realized that I was able to make some adjustments in my work too. These lessons would then transfers to my future works, which we will move on to right now. 

Part 2: Technical Report:

• Learning outcomes that were achieved with this assignment: 
  • engage in genre analysis and multimodal composing to explore effective writing across disciplinary contexts and beyond.
  • formulate and articulate a stance through and in your writing
  • practice using various library resources, online databases, and the Internet to locate sources appropriate to your writing projects
  • strengthen your source use practices (including evaluating, integrating, quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, synthesizing, analyzing, and citing sources)

The Technical Report was the second major assignment we were put up against. This assignment while not as open in terms of what exactly we were allowed to talk about, it did give us the freedom to take on pre-existing questions. The one I chose being, “What is Big Data? How does it affect the average consumer? And what can be done in order to protect yourself from these practices?” 

This assignment made us answer the question but would also ask us to use different sources, use quotes regarding this topic, and follow a layout. While I don’t have my draft on me because I had written over it, I can go into detail about the writing process itself. 

The Technical Report definitely served as more of a challenge when compared to the previous assignment. The challenges that I faced when writing are as follows; formatting, I had a very big issue when deciding on the format I would choose and how I would implement it into the work I had written. This took a lot longer than I would have liked but instead of copying and pasting, I took bits and pieces of the format to help decide on how it should look. Another issue I faced when writing would be a matter of looking through the mountains of papers in order to find some evidence in order to strengthen my point. I would eventually solve this issue by reading through the table of context and focusing on the portions that I would need. This in turn saved me a lot of time seeing as I would not have to read through the entire article in order to find my evidence. 

Once I had finished my first draft I would then speak with Prof Nicola Mcdonald and talk about my concerns regarding the outlook of the paper. My main takeaways would be more in line with what I had heard from my other meeting. However, after talking about the report I took some notes and carried them with me to the final version of the report. These were to find my target audience, who were initially to be executives at a social media company, now being regular consumers, and to choose clearly as to what I was talking about. This is because I had initially thought my topic is about the potential advantages of using Big Data in order to better companies but now I would talk about how to protect one’s self from major companies. 

Now to speak about the learning outcomes that were achieved when completing this assignment. 

• Engage in genre analysis and multimodal composing to explore effective writing across disciplinary contexts and beyond.
  • When writing this assignment I was faced with tons of data from varying websites and libraries. This clearly became a problem for me, seeing that I would need to get my point across in a manner that would actually reach my targeted audience. Therefore I chose to use more recent points of interest, such as the lawsuit that pertained to Facebook’s breach of public data. This topic would be able to grab the attention of the reader while still addressing points about the safety of using social media services. 
• Formulate and articulate a stance through and in your writing
  • This goal was definitely something that I had worked on. In my previous breakdown of the writing process for this assignment. I jumped between the ideas of helping big companies by explaining the importance of Big Data to executives. However, after speaking with my professor it seemed as though my writing was leading toward a position where I would be more against the practices that I was describing. In turn, I was able to finally gather a footing on where I stood with my writing, allowing me to complete my assignment and create a more coherent narrative. 
• Practice using various library resources, online databases, and the Internet to locate sources appropriate to your writing projects. 
  • Similar to my Technical description. This goal came as a result of just completing the assignment itself. I needed specific pieces of evidence that would help with my work and at the same time, I couldn’t spend too much time looking for it. This allowed me to create better habits on how I should go about searching for information. My technical report itself referenced articles from the library to the supreme court’s website. All of which were very useful in establishing my point. 
• Strengthen your source use practices (including evaluating, integrating, quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, synthesizing, analyzing, and citing sources)
  • This assignment heavily relied on the use of outside information to really sell your position on the question you were asking. Leading to the use of quotes and summarized texts from the sources that we had gathered. Finally leading to us having to cite our sources in order to follow guidelines and to specify where the information is coming from. 

The Technical report assignment was most definitely an increase in difficulty in comparison to our previous major assignment. While I do regret not having included any form of graphics with this assignment. I continued to carry the information and experience gained from this report to our next and final major assignment. That being the RFP. 

Part 3: Request for proposal:

• Learning outcomes achieved with the completion of this assignment: 
  • Acknowledge your and others’ range of linguistic differences as resources, and draw on those resources to develop a rhetorical sensibility
  • Enhance strategies for reading, drafting, revising, editing, and self-assessment
  • Develop and engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes
  • Practice using various library resources, online databases, and the Internet to locate sources appropriate to your writing projects

The RFP or Request for proposal assignment was the biggest assignment we had. In order to take on this assignment, we were split into teams and had to choose a topic where we would either make a proposal or respond to one. This would be done with the fictional context that our team has its very own company. This assignment was very open to what we were allowed to choose from. However, this was not nearly as easy when compared to the technical description. The reason behind this is as follows: many people had different ideas, so having a set time when we would meet, making sure we followed the directions of the proposal and making sure we present in a clear manner. While I don’t have access to the draft version of this project, I do have access to the final version which is here. 

To describe the editorial process would be difficult seeing as many of the team members will have their own view on the situation. That being said, I will describe how things were on my side. Our RFP chose to be very research-heavy on all fronts. Ranging from different machinery being used, the expected amount of money and time that would be needed for the project, and much more. I had focused on the certifications initially, using the skills I had learned from the previous assignment. I was capable of finding most of the certifications needed as well as the type of workers we would need in order to reach our expected goals. After completing this task we had done a small overhaul to the project by changing the location but following the same goal set in the previous draft. This is to clean a river of its trash. Once we finalized what it was we were going to work on, I moved to research the use of the collector machines and how to describe them to officials for our presentation. 

While all was said and done, we faced many challenges, which I will describe more in my learning outcomes. 

• Acknowledge your and others’ range of linguistic differences as resources, and draw on those resources to develop a rhetorical sensibility.
  • Something that we had to learn quickly, was to not take our criticism to heart but instead build upon it. In the initial phases of our project, we had trouble figuring out exactly what it was that we were aiming for. This would lead to some of us writing about a specific part of the project, only for the rest of the team to not have clue as to where their piece would belong. However, after several meetings outside of class, we were able to form as a unit and take bits an pieces from each other to build upon. This way we can maintain a good pace and make sure to take the best from everyone’s work. 
• Enhance strategies for reading, drafting, revising, editing, and self-assessment.
  • In regards to reading and revising our work, it goes without saying that this played a key role in the establishment of our drafts. In the beginning stages, many people had ideas but we couldn’t build upon them all. As a result, we had gone on to read each other’s work to make sure that we are following the same path in order to not confuse each other. Even checking each other’s sources to make sure that they align with our topic and even use them to further build upon the proposal. 
• Develop and engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes.
  • This learning outcome links well with the previous others. For our project to come along well enough we had to make the effort in order to speak to one another. Examples of this would be from having an online meeting to texting each other to see how our work is coming along. Though we did have bumps in which we would meet to end up not actually doing so. We were able to solve this by texting each other the parts that they had to complete. 
• Practice using various library resources, online databases, and the Internet to locate sources appropriate to your writing projects.
  • I will not stay on this for too long, simply because the point stands that we had to research our topic a lot to maintain our credibility. Not only for ourselves but for our teammates as well. 

To conclude this portion, the RFP served as an eye-opener for the future. Seeing as we will need t collaborate with people in the future it makes sense as to why this assignment was crucial to our understanding of how writing affects engineering. 

Part 4: Closing remarks:

Writing for engineers was a class unlike any other I had taken so far. 

Through the use of a variety of materials and assignments that would keep you on your toes. 

I can most definitely say that I learned a lot from this course and would encourage others to take it as well.