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 GE’s 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 GE’s

efforts in creating a finished engine made from 3D parts. This

reinforces the reputation of GE’s 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 non-

technical 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.

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.

Fall 2013