English has always been a subject that I passed without giving it much thought throughout my school life. I never took it seriously and compared to other classes such as math and science, all English needed was the bare minimum to pass. When going into college I expected English to be the same, especially since I am majoring in computer science, I assumed it would have no significance. However, coming into my second semester in college, all of this has drastically changed. I learned important skills that will truly benefit me in the future, such as discovering my theory of writing.
When coming into this class my writing process was simply doing things at the last minute. I would follow whatever prompts or questions were given and try to wing it before the deadline. After this course, however, my theory of writing has become planning ahead of time and organizing my ideas. The pieces that I have written in the class have contributed to my newly developed theory of writing in one way or another.
The first assignment that I had in this course was the letter of introduction. Since this assignment was fairly straightforward, like previous English assignments I did not give it much thought and just submitted it as all I was required to do was write about myself. The format and prompts given for it were very clear and concise, and I basically just copied that and wrote my own words.
The second assignment was the technical description. This was the first time that I had to change the way I did things in order to get a successful grade, which is where my theory of writing started to develop. This description required me to choose an invention and write a technical description of it. I had to divide it into parts and discuss its components and relevant history. When starting this, I was fairly lost as it was the first time I had to write a technical innovation, much different from the previous assignments I had such as summaries and discussion posts. I decided to start planning it out on paper by organizing my ideas. Using my bullet points, all my ideas were arranged on what I would like to do, details and evidence that supports my ideas, where images would go, etc. When I started the final draft, it was much easier to finish now because I had everything planned ahead of time.
The third assignment was a rhetorical analysis of two lab reports. This required much more research and writing compared to the last two assignments. First I had to look for lab reports to utilize for this. This introduced me to the CCNY library database where I searched for different lab reports I could use. For this assignment, like the previous one, I decided to plan ahead of time. Since we had to compare the elements between two reports, I made a table and separated the reports, comparing the elements such as introduction, discussion, conclusion, etc. Mike Markel’s book was also used to judge how effective the lab report was. In order to utilize this with my assignment, I read the book and made annotations while doing so, which helped me remember what to look for in the lab report.
The final assignment was the technical innovation project. This was by far the most challenging but also the most interesting one. For this, I had to collaborate with my classmates, and each one of us contributed our writing process to make the best project we could. My responsibilities specified in this group project were to research and write about the necessary costs for our innovation before and after implementing the solar panels in the electric vehicle, as well as the time and labor necessary to make this happen. When finding this information, I had to be very accurate as there are many different vehicles and not many people are familiar with electric vehicles. The hardest part was probably finding the price of the solar-powered electric vehicle. Since this invention isn’t common, I had to calculate the price myself by finding out the costs of the solar panel, the amount per watt, then adding it up to the costs of the electric vehicle. Looking at the energy needed for solar energy to give power to houses and then comparing it to the energy needed for vehicles is what helped me achieve this. After gathering all the research and writing it down I then had to put the information into slides and make them simple yet appealing to the audience. I had to deliver the necessary information while also making sure it wouldn’t be too much for the audience to get bored with. I used bullet points as it was the best way to achieve my goals. I once again had to use my writing process by organizing and planning ahead of time, which is why I was able to be so successful.
Overall, when entering this course I didn’t expect much, just another English class I had to get over with. However, I am truly grateful for this class and the skills I have picked up from it, as I know it will be beneficial to me in the future. I was able to discover my writing process, work and collaborate with others, and look at writing from a different lens.
