Since I was two, I was taught how to read and write. For years I have been improving my writing and finding short cuts to finish a paper faster. So far this technique has worked but I cannot depend myself on shortcuts for real life writing. This semester I have found myself facing many challenges as a writer in my 21007 writing for engineers’ course. During my time in this class, I have written many different types of papers that will help me improve my writing and help me in my ideal future field as a Civil Engineer. During my time in this course I have written a formal letter, memo, lab report analysis and technical description. After each piece of writing my skills have evolved.

The first piece of writing I wrote was a formal letter. I was required to write about myself and who I am. I spoke about my goals; long and short term, my major and personal information. For this first assignment I did complete all course learning outcomes. I acknowledged my audience by being specific and mentioning my audience in the end of my letter. Before submitting my assignment, I revised it because I wanted to make certain that I accomplish all that was asked of me. With an assignment as easy as the formal letter, it is easy to drift away from the topic. But I succeeded by not going off track. I stood to the point and was straight forward. I consider the formal letter as the base of my other writing assignments. By this I mean that in my other pieces of writings I had my own goal of doing equally or better than the formal letter. However, the challenges did not begin until I had my next assignment.

Following the formal letter, I wrote a memo to the President of City College proposing a change. My initial thought was that this assignment will be easy to write but not easy to find a problem that needed a solution. Because I couldn’t find any real problem in the school, I went the easy way and wrote about a personal problem I had. And therefore, my grade went down believing that my writing can over do the requirements of the memo. For my final draft of the memo I received a grade of 14 out of 25, which I was fine with since I know I was short on the amount of work I did. I did not consider my audience which was the biggest issue. I had to find a problem that was affecting everyone to most of the school but instead I focused on my problem. If I bothered to do more research on the school than I believe I would have written a better paper with a better topic. For both structure and mechanics, I received a three and I did not expect that because in my previous writing from the years, structure and mechanics, have been my greatest challenge. I believed that I would have received a lower grade for mechanics since I know that is a continuing issue that I have. After viewing the comments and grade for the memo I now know what I should better work on for future memos. For future writing I need to acknowledge my audience which effects the purpose of my writing. From the memo, I learned that I need to take time aside and do research in what I am writing about. By doing this I will have accurate evidence and information.

After writing the memo, I wrote a lab report analysis. The goal of the paper was to compare the writing between three different lab reports. This must have been the most difficult assignment I have had in this course. I found the most difficult having been reading the lab reports and trying to understand the language and stay interested. Before deciding on my final three lab reports, I have read and research many others in all different fields. Then, came the writing part. I did not have a problem with writing the lab report analysis since I understood what I needed to do. This time around my grade for mechanics was low having a two. I also received a two for evidence and analysis. After reading the comments that the professor made, I realize why I received that grade I did. I was not specific enough and very plain. I learned from this mistake for the following piece of writings to be very specific and turn every rock when writing. My overall grade was 16 out of 25, I am proud of the jump between papers. This shows that my writing is improving. I have improved as a writer compared to my previous assignment. This time around I did acknowledge my audience and did research to have greater knowledge on my topic. However, I continue to not provide enough evidence and have not been specific enough in my writing. These are two things that I need to better work on as a writer. My goal after this point is to review over my work and after peer review to add more details. By doing this I will have more evidence.

The technical description was the next assignment for the semester. This was another assignment that I considered very easy to write. I wrote the technical description twice after I received the grade 16 out of 25. On my second try of writing the paper, I received the grade 19 out of 25, I am very proud of this three-point jump between the original paper and the redo paper. For the previous paper, lab report analysis, I mentioned that I fell short in evidence and analyzing and that I was going to improve that for the next paper. Apparently, in my first try of writing the technical description I did not accomplish my self-goal of having improve my score for evidence and analysis. However, in my second time writing the technical description, I did accomplish my self-goal by improving my score from a two to a three. I feel as if I made many dumb mistakes in my wiring for the technical description which is why I decided to rewrite it. For my redo paper I did squash those dumb mistakes. Yet for the redo paper, the professor noted small mistakes I had. Personally, I believe I should have seen these mistakes and should not have done them. But regardless I am still proud of my paper and enjoy writing it. For this paper I received the highest score so far. The technical description has shown the greatest amount of improvement and it also proves that if I try, I can achieve a high score. For my future courses and life, I will use the same tactic as I did for the technical description which is constantly rewriting and editing my work.

I learned a lot this semester in how to become a better writer. I am grateful for the chance I had to learn and understand how I can improve my writing skills. I tend to use these skills for my future writing assignments. There are no more short cuts but time and consideration. This will take my writing a long way. Compared to my first assignment this semester to my last assignment, I did improve my writing in all aspects from considering my audience to mechanics and proving more details.