From Drafts to Direction: Finding My Voice Through Writing for Engineers
Can one writing course really change the way someone thinks about communication and writing? I did not think so. As an Urban Studies major, I chose to take the course Writing for Engineers so that I can learn how to present projects in a more technical and logical way. Throughout this course, I completed a lot of writing assignments that strengthened my journey of being a purposeful and flexible writer. These assignments made me consider not only what I was writing but also the audience and context. Especially, the resume, cover letter, and personal introduction assignment helped me negotiate my own writing goals. The assignments had particular audience expectations regarding the genre and rhetorical situation. I worked through drafting, feedback, and revision. I realised how writing changes from a college essay to a real-world professional setting.
The resume and cover letter assignment helped me improve in reading, drafting, revising, editing, and self-assessment. I read professional job postings properly to understand how resumes and cover letters function from a professional perspective. I learned to find the keywords and expectations from the job description. Then I revised my documents to match those expectations. This method also made me formulate and articulate a stance through my writing. In my cover letter, I had to argue why I am a strong candidate. After revising my drafts based on my instructor’s feedback, I realized that drafting is an essential part of writing.
The personal introduction assignment taught me how to reflect on my background, interests, and experiences. As a multilingual student, I have become more aware of my language choices. Moreover, many assignments in this course have encouraged peer feedback and discussion. That helped me develop and engage in the collaborative and social aspects. Through these assignments, I learned to connect with not only my own writing but also with others. Since we got to comment on each other’s introductions, it made us capable of socializing more.
The group proposal project, “A Refuge for Scholars: CCNY’s New Student Center Proposal,” was one of the most collaborative experiences in the course. Through this project, I learned a better approach to collaborative engaging activity by working with my classmate. Organizing, collecting data, and presenting with my teammates gave me a practical knowledge of real-life projects. Each person contributed different ideas and experiences, which made the project stronger. We had to write in convincing way to the audience and decision makers . We supported our proposal with surveys, research studies, and architectural planning. The project also strengthened my understanding of the audience as we constantly learned how to make our proposal convincing and professional. Looking for sources to match our proposal strengthened our experience is library resources, online databases, and the Internet platform.
The lab report assignment, “Lucky Sevens or Random Chance?,” also helped me grow as a writer. Writing the report taught me how to organize scientific writing into sections like introduction, methods, results, and conclusion. I practiced reading, drafting, revising, editing, and self-assessment once again but this time I made sure that the experiment and analysis were clear and logical. Creating graphs and tables for the experiment also strengthened my skills with the use of technology in the course.
The last major and important assignment in this course was the technical description project about green roof systems. This project helped me engage in genre analysis and multimodal composing to explore effective writing across disciplinary contexts and beyond.I had to combine visuals, diagrams, definitions, and research into one organized presentation. I learned how technical writing needs to be clear and visually understandable for the audience. While creating the project, I used Canva for the first time. So, I would say this assignment introduced me to a new tool I can use for my presentations. I learned how to deliver precise and compact information on a poster that is visually appealing to the audience. I also improved my presentation skills because I had to deliver the same speech and the same information more than 5 times. It is not only a learning experience but also a platform to practice and improve.
Beyond the major assignments, this course honestly changed the way I think about communication and writing. At first, I was not confident enough as the only liberal arts student in my class. Through peer reviews, class discussions, drafting, and revisions, I learned that good writing takes time and improves through feedback. I also learned how to combine my organizational knowledge with my information and deliver a presentation. The course helped me improve my research skills, APA citation, and use of digital tools like Microsoft Office, PowerPoint, and online databases. Looking back at my work from the beginning of the semester, I can clearly see how much I have improved not only as a writer but also as a communicator. I have gained a better knowledge of how to write in the most technical and logical way. Overall, this class made me more confident, flexible, and aware of how writing can be used beyond the classroom in real-life and professional settings.
