From the assignments that I have had to complete for this course, I feel that I have truly learned a lot. I have learned a lot about writing that I will have to do as an engineer but I have also learned about the ways that my writing has changed over the years. I became more aware of the strengths and weaknesses I have. The piece that I enjoyed writing the most is the letter of introduction. The reason for this is that I felt that I could express myself and talk about something that was important to me. The piece that I enjoyed writing the least was the rhetorical analysis. Although it had not been the first time I have written a piece like this, it allowed me to see that it is one that I continue to struggle with. If I had more time, I think I would focus on improving my writing and breaking down of a rhetorical analysis.

I don’t consider my writing to be terrible, but I admit that I still make a lot of grammatical errors. I often have to reread my work multiple times to catch any error but even then I know that I do not see them all. Sometimes my writing can also be a bit disorganized. Little things such as a certain sentence, would fit better in another paragraph. As I mentioned before, I think just being allowed to write freely is something that I do best. I want my work to show how my writing has changed over the course of the semester and hopefully has improved not just compared to the beginning of the semester but from previous years as well. I think that the majority of my work does show that I enjoy writing, not just from this semester but since I have started writing. I think that sometimes to be able to write well one really has to be passionate about it.

The writing in this course affected my development as a writer by allowing me to see the different styles there are. For example, by writing a technical description, something I had never done before, I saw that things really have to be broken down in order to be explained and that even demonstrating the smallest pieces of something has a purpose. I showed me that the way something is described is method and that getting your purpose of writing a certain piece across to an audience is a totally different method of writing. Before I would think of these to things as similar. I also learned how to write a memo, something that I did not know how to do before. It seems so simple yet carries so much detail.

In order for me to be able to write, I have to be in a quiet space. This is to allow me to think of what it is that I want to write or where I want to start because I often find it difficult to put my thoughts into words. That is something I have struggled with for a long time. I often find that when it is not quite, my thoughts get disorganized and I end up confusing myself more. For example, when I wrote the memo, the goal of the assignment was to find a problem I wanted to address and think of a possible solution to that problem. It took me a while to find a problem I wanted to focus on but eventually using the technique of being in a quiet space helped me to get there. Although it was just an assignment, I did want to write about something important and be able to explain why I felt it was important. I have also been in a situation where I am unable to think of what to write next no matter how hard I try to come up with something. I find it useful to reread what I already have written down because often times something in there doesn’t make sense or doesn’t prove my point. For instance, when I was writing the rhetorical analysis (Ortega, 4) I had to state what was the urgency that drove the authors to write the paper. When I reading the paper I found more than one reason but only one of those reasons supported my point for the rest of the paper.

Writing takes time. Good writing takes even more time. I knew that if I wanted to write good pieces I had to take my time and not rush into it simply because I wanted to get it over with. When I write, I first focus on deciding what it is I will write about and then doing research on that topic. Then I will create an outline to resemble what I want the finished piece to look like. Once I have done that, I will start putting all my thoughts into words. When I had to write the technical description for the camera, I felt that I did not put the necessary amount of time into it. A lot of the things I said sounded repetitive to me but I was unsure what I could change so that it would not sound like that anymore. If I had more time to work on one of the writing assignments and improve on it, I feel like it would have to be that one.

In this course, did have to collaborate with others. Specifically, I had to do this for the proposal project. Writing with others can be difficult because everyone has a different writing style and when it’s one paper that needs to be submitted I should appear as if one person wrote it. There is also the issue of deciding who writes what and if a certain person is doing their part on time. Writing as a group definitely had its challenges but I learned how to work as a team and as I mentioned before learn to write as one individual.