Joy Rebustes Reflective Essay: Fall 2013 Semester Taking Advanced Writing for the Technical Professions this

semester was like riding a bicycle after several years. While I did well in AP Literature class analyzing classic novels, writing about real topics in mechanical engineering was foreign, yet exciting. As a professional engineer, writing is expected to be concise and clear: there is no need for the superfluous when writing about technical information. Also, recognizing the audience who reading the piece is especially important as well, since this factor will weigh how technical or general the writing should be. By taking this course, I hoped to gain clarity and precision in my writing I sometimes lacked to excel with my career path. In Unit 1, I examined an article posted by General Electric (GE) Aviation about a 3-D printed engine called the LEAP engine, titled GE Started Testing Next-Gen Jet Engine with 3D Printed Parts. The goal of this assignment was to closely observe this piece of writing and analyze why the writer chose to write with certain syntax, format and tone, and also how successful he/she was with the purpose of the subject. By scrutinizing the text and layout of the website, I gathered evidence and stated judgments about the company and its willingness to sell both GEs name and product. However, there were still shortcomings to my essay. For example, I wrote: Incorporating 3D printing into the title brings in curious engineers, who after reading the article, are impressed with GEs efforts in creating a finished engine made from 3D parts. This reinforces the reputation of GEs innovation and creates excitement among engineering communities, improving possibilities of more sales. While I made my judgment about the goal of the writer, and provided evidence with the title, I do not mention how the inclusion of 3D printing makes GE innovative compared to other companies. I also do not go into detail about how the title gives GE a reputation for being innovative. Thankfully, these oversights were caught by my professor, so I would recognize my ambiguity. This kind of critical thinking will be important in my career, and should be improved upon. This can be done by continual practice by writing reports relaying information to supervisors about data that I gather.

For Unit 2, I created a flyer highlighting Stud-E, a poor posture preventative study device aimed toward students. Stud-E was a project that a team and I developed for a competition called Innoservice. In addition to creating a flyer, my assignment required a persuasive cover letter for the head of the competition, convincing him to give our team permission to pass out the handout to both judges and conference attendees. In this assignment, I improved on being more concise, compared to the first paper. I was able to be convincing in the cover letter by stating the request, the need, and the benefit in just 3 short paragraphs. The flyer itself is colorful and eye-catching. I used large pictures to show off the small details of our product and to entice audience members to join the competition next year. I also took advantage of blocking the text and pictures to create a layout that is pleasing to the eye. Most importantly, the flyer covers all of the best features of our products, with limited words. These aesthetic details were essential to impress judges with the attention to detail and to pique the interest of other conference members. An excerpt from the flyer shows my understanding of the audience: This is Stud-E, your new study buddy device. Inspired by the neck and back pain experienced by Asian-American students, Stud-E takes advantage of the ages of 8 to 14, which studies have proven are the best ages to instill good and lasting postural habits. With better posture, students can become more comfortable, confident, productive, and healthy in the long run. I state the need (alleviating neck and back pain), the intent of use (better posture), and the benefits to the user (comfortable, confident, productive, healthy) in one paragraph. By using positive words such as comfortable and confident in the last sentence, the reader will be interested in learning more about how the unit works and the advantages they can gain by using the product. I was proud of my work for this unit mostly because of my slight improvement from the first unit, and also because I was able to put my design abilities to good use. Since I would like to be a design engineer one day, creating examples such as this flyer may be able to help me one day by showcasing my abilities. Unit 3 was my favorite and best assignment of the semester. I wrote a Feature titled Shifting into Blind Gear: Are We Ready for Driverless Cars? As described by the title, the article delves how the development of Driverless Cars can affect our lives, good and bad. After years of pedantic lab reports, I was finally able to incorporate my own tone into my writing. I enjoyed being able to write as if I was talking to a crowd. I excelled at being able to

recognize my audience and write with the appropriate tone. The audience of this paper was nontechnical readers interested in a more technical subject; therefore I adjusted my writing to be more humorous and relaxed. I used a lot of pictures that would attract the eye and give a break to the text, like a blog or magazine article, that would really engage a more casual reader. These changes resulted in a paper that is easy to read, yet still thought-evoking and full of information. I found and wrote about both advantages and complications that driverless cars would bring. For example, automobile accidents kill more than 30,000 people a year in the US, and nearly 90% of these occur because of human error. With driverless cars, this number can drastically reduce. On the other hand, with no need for drivers, what will we do when we must displace the nation's 240,000 taxi drivers or its 1.6 million truck drivers? By bringing up unexpected consequences, the reader has realizations about technology, inspiring him or her to think about other consequences they may have overlooked in the past. My final paragraph best captures the point of my paper, as I give recommendations to the reader: Be diligent, and do your research before you decide to give up responsibility to technology. Find out how these cars truly work. Look up the latest testing in safety. Ask questions to the sellers and become informed consumers! This way, when driverless cars finally take over, our highways will be faster, smarter and safer. With these parting sentences, I challenge readers to research before they buy. I give examples of how to go about this; however, there is enough vagueness for readers to do their own research their own way. What I truly enjoy about these last few sentences, and the entire paper, is that it inspires audience to think. In addition, by saying our highways rather than just the highways, I was able to form a final personal connection between me and the reader. While the article does provide a lot of great information about driverless cars, its underlying theme is to persuade readers to become more informed about technology, and think about the consequences after every advantage. I believe that this assignment really shows my flexibility as an engineer. I am able to adjust myself to write to both technical and non-technical readers. This implies that in the workplace, I will be able to interact agreeably with all different kinds of people, not just with engineers, but businessmen, buyers and sellers as well. In addition, if I was to show this paper to a potential boss, he/she may be impressed by my viewpoint of seeing every positive and negative

consequence. If I help create a consumer product one day, it is comforting for a boss to know that I thoroughly thought out all possibilities. Modern Organ Replication Methods Investigating the Development of Artificial Organs for Transplant is the title of my Unit 4 assignment. In this paper, I investigated several methods of replicating organs artificially, and pass my judgment on the best method, while supporting this claim with evidence. The best quality about this report is the organization of the data. I was able to create a technical paper that was organized and clear, while explicitly stating the advantages and disadvantages of each method. For example, I wrote: The biggest challenge for scaffolding is especially natural organ movement due to its rigid skeleton. Therefore, focusing on other methods, such as cell printing, would be the most logical path to developing a fully artificial transplant organ. This excerpt states that the scaffolding method is too difficult; therefore, the better method to be focused on is cell printing. My final paragraph is dedicated to reiterating why cell printing is the superior method and reminding the technical readers how big of an impact this may make to transplant patients. In this unit, I was able to effectively practice reading technical reports from trustworthy scientific sources, and apply my own arguments to them. This is an important ability as an engineer. In my future, I will have to keep up with current events, and create my own conclusions of that subject. This assignment was great practice in how to research materials thoroughly and convey my thoughts clearly and convincingly to a technical reader. I have learned a lot from this course, ranging from appropriate citation conventions to organizing my writing so that the subjects flow fluidly throughout the paper. Evaluating other papers and giving criticism also gives me insight into my own paper and inspires me to write better. I am glad that this course let recognize where I can still develop, such as in critical analysis and making clearer assertions. I truly feel that taking Advanced Writing in the Technical Disciplines has prepared me to be an exceptional writer as a professional engineer. Acknowledgements I am indebted to my classmates and my professor, Thomas Akbari, who consistently gave me great feedback on how to improve.

Fall 2013

This class may be improved further if each unit had some examples of papers done by students in previous semesters. This way, we can know more effectively what is expected of us before waiting for the screencasts of the volunteers rough drafts.