In this class, I have completed many assignments that have helped me in achieving the class learning outcomes. From baffling descriptions to the engineering proposal report, each assignment that has come in between has taught me something new to carry onto the next assignment. One of the course learning outcomes that I achieved throughout my different writing assignments is “enhance strategies for reading, drafting, revising, editing, and self assessment”. For assignments like the lab report, the technical description, and the engineering proposal, I used initial understanding to create a rough draft that would lay the blueprint for the following steps to come. After getting revised by peers and my professor, I was able to enhance my writing, using their suggestions to make it more clear and make it the best version it can be. After editing it and making it the final draft, I used to self assess part of this learning outcome to later grade my own work and reflect on the whole process of making it. One piece of work that reflected this learning outcome was my technical description on a flashlight. When I first completed the rough draft, I had a hard time expressing how I would write so much of a technical description about a flashlight. I didn’t think that a big paper can be written about something simple. I submitted my rough draft knowing that a lot of work had to be done on it in order to make it better. Using what my peers said about my work, I used that information to revise my report, making it much better than the original. Another course learning outcome that I achieved in this class is “develop and engage in collaborative and social aspects of writing processes”. In every assignment, Professor Brown made us be in contact with other people whether we were working together or not. One assignment that reflected this outcome was the engineering proposal presentation. This project involved working with a group to create a solution for a problem faced in real time. Constantly throughout the project, I had to communicate with my group about this project, discussing what our project is going to be and what roles everyone is assigned. Other than working with my group, another social aspect of this was looking at other peoples projects and commenting on it. After seeing other groups’ presentations, one social thing I did was ask questions to other groups about their projects. By asking these questions, other groups were able to interact with questions I had, enhancing the social aspect of the learning outcome. I was also able to strengthen my source use practices. In preparing for every assignment, the one thing we had to do before starting the actual writing was finding sources that would support our argument. Sources are important to a paper because it helps develop arguments and allows for more than one perspective on a topic. To support my argument in every paper, I integrated quotes from the sources into the paper to flow easily. This learning outcome also connects to the learning outcome that says “practice using various library resources, online databases, and the Internet to locate sources appropriate to your writing projects”. This connects with the previous learning outcome because both involve evaluating sources to better a paper. I achieved this learning outcome because for every assignment, I used sources that were relevant to the project and I located these sources through online databases. In every writing project, I stuck with my argument and didn’t change my stance which is why I also achieved the outcome “formulate and articulate a stance through and in your writing”. One of the writing assignments that showed this outcome was the questions on the squirrel proof bird feeder video. In every question that was assigned, I answered it sticking with the argument I had for the duration of the response. These smaller assignments helped me develop my stance for bigger papers like the engineering proposal. When writing the proposal for the overflow of water, I stayed consistent in continuing to emphasize the method presented. Each assignment, whether it was as simple as finding sources or as complex as writing a whole report, helped in achieving each class learning outcome. Through each learning outcome, I was able to demonstrate different theoretical concepts and rhetorical terms. One thing I noticed looking back at the assignments this semester is that it expanded my communication abilities. Different papers made either persuade, inform, or entertain readers. For example, in the lab report, I was entertaining the reader, telling the audience more about the experiment and the outcome of it. The lab report can also inform the reader along with entertaining because even though the experiment part is entertaining, I also used the lab report to discuss background information about the topic and why the result happened. All the papers had a purpose of informing the reader, but one other purpose that the engineering proposal had was to persuade. Since the basis of the project was convincing to get funding for the proposal, persuading the audience is definitely one of the purposes of the paper. Overall, this class has allowed me to view other aspects of writing and develop my skills. By developing these skills, I also was able to achieve different class learning outcomes. Each assignment helped me get a step closer to achieving more learning outcomes allowing me to interpret them into my writing.

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