Allen Fang

Writing for Engineering

Mr. Bubrow

How to start writing a paper:
You just start writing

Writing for Engineering was a course I had to take but it was a course that taught me a lot. Throughout the semester we had 6 different writing assignments, an introduction paragraph, resume & cover letter, lab report, proposal plan, interview report and the technical description, each having their own purpose for our journey pursuing engineering. These assignments helped me develop a way to think on the spot, or to just start writing when you’re unsure of what to write.

Our first assignment was to write an introduction paragraph of ourselves to our classmates. Starting off was hard because you’re unsure of what to write, but we were given a list of what we should include, from name, major, experiences, to hobbies and random skills you have. Having a basic understanding of what to write helped as with a clear goal of what I want to show in my writing, I just started typing. I’ve learned that in order to start a paper when you dont know what to even write, you can just write and rant or free-write, because this will help you set out a basic ground on what you could focus on.

The resume & cover letter assignment was very helpful on applying for an internship or job. At the beginning of the assignment, I had to find an internship from a job site, whether it be from Indeed, LinkedIn or anywhere else and create a resume and cover letter for that company. The resume had to be made to be easily scanned from bots of the company that would be searching for qualifications that are similar from their job posting, which I had included in my resume and cover letter. The resume was a pretty easy part because we had to list my education, experiences I had at other jobs that we could also describe on how it’s helpful to their company, and other skills or qualities that matches who they’re looking for. The cover letter is a bit harder because it required more specifics onto how we can contribute to the company, and why I was a good candidate to get an interview. The first paragraph was introducing ourselves and state how we found their job posting, and write what skills or qualities we have that can adapt well to their team. The next paragraph was to be more specific about those skills/qualities and my experiences about them, where we got them or learned them. The conclusion was restating the main point of the cover letter: to get an interview. Doing this helped me develop a better understanding of how I could make a resume and cover letter to get a better chance of getting an internship or Job because before this I would always use the same resume for every place I applied.

After the Resume and Cover letter assignment, our second assignment was the Lab Report on the outcome of 100 dice rolls. Writing the report overall taught me many things such as the important of a two-part title that describes the experiment, that hooks the reader in, making them interested to start reading. Using a online dice generator, I used Excel to record the data for the sum of the dice when rolled 100 times. Then, using the CCNY library database to find scholarly articles about dice probability, it became easier to write and talk about the objective of the Lab Report, the probability when rolling a pair of dice. This assignment had a lot of reading, with the scholarly article, tables, charts, and graphs, that helped with your hypothesis of what numbers would roll the most. The end result of this assignment helped me have a better understanding on how to make a lab report, with writing the abstract that summarizes the experiment, to the conclusion that summarizes the experiment, results and analysis that tells the reader what can be down with the results.

The next project was the group proposal project, we chose teammates for a team of four to make a formal proposal for a new student center for the college. The very beginning of the project was proof of making connection in the beginning of class, allowing us to form a team with people we were familiar with. The next step was to brainstorm ideas for the new student center, from the size, what it will have, where, how much will it costs, and if it should be a new building or in a renovated building. Throughout this project, it showed how teamwork can be done, with a few making sure that things go smoothly, we were able to do the project in time and efficiently, assigning roles to each person. Each person was in charge of a section of the proposal, the introduction, conclusion, action plan, cost and benefits, or the introduction to the team, while putting together the works cited page and appendix together as we gather resources and data. We wrote multiple drafts and ideas, brainstorming, and using primary and secondary sources to help further our proposal for a newer and better student center, while using real-world costs and budgeting. The focus when doing this assignment was for the audience and purpose, setting the goal to appease to our audience, in this case it would be the school board, for our purpose, a new student center. This made it much easier throughout the project because we knew how we wanted to setup our drafts and presentation to make it more appealing and effective to consider our proposal.

The lat major assignment we had was the technical description. This assignment was to write a concise document or presentation about some project, object, device, or process related to our major. I had chosen to do Formula One with another classmate I did the proposal project with, and we were both Mechanical Engineer majors so it worked out. Using a mix of texts and visuals that helps explain our topic to the audience, we were able to make a technical description draft on a Microsoft word document, outlining our points and features of Formula One we would present, and then input it into google slides. Using drawings, photos, and scholarly-level research, we were also able to further our description on the aerodynamic importance in Formula One, and how each component of the vehicle contributes to the vehicles aerodynamics. Being able to do this with a partner, we were able to do this much more efficiently with equal work split among us, allowing us to write more concisely and use a APA style when citing our resources.

Overall, this was a very fun and challenging class, learning more ways to better ourself in writing for our future, this class helped me learn more on how to prepare and write for the future in engineering. Most English classes I learn and forget as the class ends, but this class I know I will remember because of how useful this course is. It taught me many things that I know will be useful later in life, mainly of the technical descriptions and the proposal project, because it not only taught me how to do it, but also helped with the fear of presenting. As many others can feel the same way, presenting is scary in front of a group, and this course helped ease that feeling a little bit. I’m thankful I was able to take this course, and grateful I had Mr. B teaching me. (adios :wave:)