Dear Professor Carr,

As a requirement for obtaining a B.S. computer science degree, I had to apply for this “Writing for Engineering” course. After taking Freshman Composition on my first semester, I believed that this course would follow suit and give us similar assignments. I believed that I already was a competent writer and that this class would be easy enough for me to pass without dedicating. my full attention onto it. However, I was definitely proven wrong as I start tying up all the loose ends this course has given. This course required us to look at writing through an engineer’s lenses and had us approach different forms of genres and mediums to accomplish these tasks. We had to consider and incorporate different rhetorical situations and course learning objectives to learn what it means to write as an engineer and how to generally write more effectively in future endeavors. Due to this, I will now pay further attention to what I will write in the future.

To what extent have I achieved the course learning objectives?
Based on the work I have accomplished; I believe that I have fully realized and understood the course learning objectives of this class. Ranging from analyzing previous students’ samples and to making my own work like a memo, I had to consider which course learning objective was present. Taking account to what my partners have contributed, how my work is cited, how I am incorporating outside sources and correctly citing them in my work, and how it aligns with the several rhetorical situations all falls in line with the course learning objectives. Due to this, and also being forced to confront and acknowledge them in the reflections we have submitted, I cannot help but feel that I have to the fullest extent achieved the course learning objectives.

In what ways have my perceptions on what writing is and does evolved this semester?
My perception on writing can do mostly has not changed this semester. I have always been aware of the impact writing can do and have been appreciative of this fact. However, my perception on what writing is has certainly evolved through this course. This has changed because of the multiple genres and mediums we had to use in our assignments. This ranged from creating PowerPoint presentations on proposals, to written documents formatted for memos. This constant flux of how we approach our writing has effectively taught me what writing can be, as I now realize it can take many different forms depending on what your purpose for writing is and how you choose to present it.

How does the audience impact the content and purpose of the text?
The audience has a great influence on how the content and purpose of a document is presented. The audience is who the author is directing their writing to, so they are going to try and write in favor of them. For example, for our instructions assignment my group chose to present our content in the form of a PowerPoint for our audience. This is because we perceived our audience as people who want a quick description on our set of instructions with a lot of visual aid and short bullets points. Therefore, because we interpreted how our audience might want to read our instructions, they had a direct effect on how we wanted to present and shape our content as well as our purpose for the instructions. If an author does not take the audience into account, the document may hinder the audience’s ability to comprehend the main point they are attempting to get across.

Was there a challenge in writing across genres and addressing specific audiences?
There were definitely obstacles I had to overcome when writing across different genres and addressing specific audiences. Taking these two factors into account can change the way on what information you may want to present to the audience and how you want to present that information. For example, when writing our technical descriptions, I had to take into account who my audience was and write accordingly, being specific and detailed in the sections where it needed to me such as the background information and instructions on how to use the product. This contrasts with the resume we had to create, as it was a document intended to be much short and only required specific information that would let the audience take too long to read. Managing the balance of these obstacles were challenging, but as we have continued with these assignments it has definitely become easier overtime.

What happened to the other rhetorical elements when you change one of the elements within the situation?
Changing one rhetorical element will have an effect on all the others in your writing. This is because each of the rhetorical element’s work in tandem to form a coherent and cohesive document. As previously mentioned, changing the rhetorical element of audience will have a direct effect on the purpose, media and genre. It can also directly affect the document’s stance as it can change what position they want to be in for the audience, as well as the exigence to change why they want to write the document in the first place. This one example of changing just one rhetorical element can be applied to changing any of the other elements, showing the impact they can have on a document.

Discuss how the shift back to the classroom has affect your educational experience. How was conducting group work? Student life? Which do you prefer? Discuss your transition and experience.
The transition from a fully online educational experience to returning back to in person lectures was definitely jarring at first. This was my first time having to go to campus for classes weekly as a freshman, so getting up every day and preparing to commute for an hour to class definitely had an impact on my educational experience. Group work was generally easy, but that was probably because I may have gotten lucky with a well-rounded and communicative group who was open to discussing the work at hand. The student life has improved in some respects as well, as my social life has now somewhat mended itself back together after sitting in front of a screen for two years. However, I would still prefer the online school experience, as I like to work at my own pace, and I feel more productive learning the material myself.

Sincerely,

Istiaq Ahmed