Course Evaluation
I enrolled myself in this course for main reason that I want to improve my writing skills because I was aware that it is really important for being an engineer. Actually, I was thinking that this course is all about writing, but what I gained in this course is much more than what I expected. In this page I will show my feedback of two of the assignments and then I will give my opinion about the peer review. After that, a course reflection will be mentioned followed by an acknowledgment.
Assingments
Feasibility Report
Writing the feasibility report was done as a team work consists of three members. We applied what we learned during the workshops in the summer course, about attaching the visual aids and referring them in the text. In addition, we applied the IEEE reference style to any information used as well as for paraphrasing in order to avoid the plagiarism. I think that learning IEEE reference style is really important for any small Piece of information. Without the citation, the feasibility report will be considered unethical or it doesn’t follow the IEEE code of ethics.
Furthermore, our skills in writing were improved because this report is done in organized steps that been shown in the writing process, which helped us in improving our style in writing as well as it taught us the time management, responsibility, cooperation and being profession. In addition, the course gave us some tips on what a reader should focus on in a writing, which includes: Using top-down techniques to help readers understand the organization and structure of the work, all paragraphs have clear topic sentences and clear central ideas as well as learning the visual aid and refer to it in the text to illustrate mechanisms and processes, using IEEE citation style which focuses on the weaknesses in order improve it and focuses also on the strengths in order to keep up with it and develop it. Also, I like to point that we learned to avoid ambiguity by giving examples and how to be a good researcher and find the best references.
Moreover, I believe that this task was important since it taught us how to write a report which is considered an essential thing in an engineer's academic and career life. The most important thing we learned is the structure of the report as well as following the standards according to the companies or the magazines that we are going to write for. However, there are some basic things in all structure such as the abstract, introduction, discussion and conclusion. Moreover, I learned an important point which is that the abstract is really important because it either works as an attraction for reader or it will bore him away from the reading.
Other skills included:
As writer, the instructor taught the students how to attract the reader and how to focus on the reader's comfort by making the writing as simple as it possible and by using the visual aids affectively.
As engineers, we are used on using the scientific words without considering how the people reading would feel about it, however the instructor grabbed our attention to that point and taught us that in order to become professional we, as writers, should consider the type of audience we were addressing.
As writer, the instructor taught the students how to attract the reader and how to focus on the reader's comfort by making the writing as simple as it possible and by using the visual aids affectively.
As engineers, we are used on using the scientific words without considering how the people reading would feel about it, however the instructor grabbed our attention to that point and taught us that in order to become professional we, as writers, should consider the type of audience we were addressing.
The e-portfolio
The e-portfolio was an amazing opportunity to upload our 6 weeks of work online. It allowed us reflect our thoughts and our work in a formal and innovative way. It also gave us the chance to learn how to design and develop a website.
Peer Review
Technical writing course doesn't only focus on writing but also gives the reader the chance to give a constructive criticism of what reader is reading. These skills were taught by the course instructor in various workshops including draft 1 and draft 2 evaluations. Furthermore, this course helps the student to develop their social skills because it gives the student the opportunity to work in groups and listen to what others have to say and respect their opinions, just like what happened at the feasibility report, simple instructions and mechanism description. Moreover, the other skills attained from this course included the ability to judge ourselves as what happened at the presentation where the instructor asked every group who was presenting if they had the chance would they "re-present" their project the way they did. My course contribution is attached click here to see it.
Course Reflection
I like to point that the course objectives were met and finishing the syllables was accomplished on the time. I liked this course because it helped me to attain new knowledge for new type of research papers like simple instruction, memos and user manual. It introduced us to the IEEE code of ethics which is important to me as a junior student. The syllables were fair enough and I think I gained the basics of technical writing and communication in the best way I could have ever got.
Acknowledgment
I would like to thank our course instructor for providing us with all the tools we needed to accomplish this course and for helping us in fulfilling each task throughout the course. It was a great opportunity and an honor to take this course with her. She was helpful and always there whenever we need her. She has much intellectual and literal knowledge both in academic and real life which I admire and trust to be a place where I can turn for advice and find it. We also trust her because we saw how faithful and devoted in her work. She also taught the students about new technology such as “Google sketch up” and how to utilize it for their benefit. Thank You!
