Dear future English 21007 students,

I was once a student of this class, Writing for Engineers, in the spring of 2023. You may ask yourself: “what is the purpose of this class?”, “what is it that you would get out of it?”, and or “Is this class even worth it?”. Well I asked myself these same questions coming into this course, and having experienced this all myself, I can make educated conclusions. I never had good writing skills, they were always average or sometimes even below average, but this course teaches you how to effectively write. These assignments are not pointless essays and questions, but things which you will one day have to write as a professional in the field of engineering. These works and teachings helped elevate my own skills, because it gave a sense of purpose to my words. I was learning skills that I would one day find useful, though some more than others.

Throughout this semester I do believe as if I achieved the 8 course learning outcomes of this course. These were not achieved and perfected right away though, they were honed over time. Each and every assignment helping build upon the last, being able to look back on my works and fix my mistakes helped to achieve this. These were displayed in works such as the memo, which focused on the rhetorical element of the audience, analyzing and adapting my work to be more appropriate to a specific person or group. Or the technical description which focused on purpose, trying to persuade the audience and make them understand your cause and what you truly feel. And even the lab report and engineering proposal which outlined research and analyzing outside sources and properly citing them to be used within your own work. Through peer evaluation and professor feedback, I was able to evolve my skills to achieve the course learning outcomes. 

When tackling a subject such as audience, it can be rather tricky in how to go about it. Such as first identifying who the main demographic of consumers for your work is. Usually this can be broadly broken down to professional or casual audiences, as well as the experience level of the audience on the subject of the work. If the audience was to be for the general public, minute details may be omitted in order to further reach those that do not completely understand the information. As well as to make it easier for the consumer of the media. 

After the last two years of learning remotely and being physically disconnected from the classroom, my perception of education has changed as well as my workflow. In some ways I thrived in class being more flexible, not having to worry about long commutes and fully preparing myself to leave my home to go to classes. Meaning I was more able to rest and give more time to things such as assignments or online socializing with my friends. Though in the physical classroom, I find that there is more structure and having information being told to me face to face makes it easier to digest it. As well as group work had become a little bit easier, being able to more easily talk and discuss with peers about the class and collaborate on assignments. 

Due to this course I was able to learn a lot and greatly enhance my writing abilities, as well as learn useful professional skills.