In the Writing for Engineering class, one of the homework assignments was to write about what I had learned from the required textbook for the course. Chapters were reviewed in class, and we were taught the types of skills in engineering, like different types of papers, and how to perform those skills by submitting reading responses.
Reading Response #1: Consider your own use of technical communication. How is it present in your everyday life? Be specific and give examples.
Consider or describe my use of technical communication. Instead, it is tough to say that my technical communication is beyond and above; many people like me need help with some technical communication as we all are imperfect and have our grammar and choice of words. In many of our everyday lives, we all use technical communication. It’s rather impossible not to use or be exposed to any of the technical communication in our everyday lives. Such examples of communication are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Technical communication plays a significant role in my everyday life, from my personal to my student professional routine, from communication that helps others learn about a subject or carry out tasks to communication that reinforces or changes attitudes, producing communication, and communicating professionally.
One prominent area where technical communication is prevalent in my life is as a college student and even during my high school experiences. In the role of a student both in college and high school, I frequently engage in sending emails and how important it is to acquire a skill in technical communication. Carrying a role as a student no matter, whether it’s in college, high school, junior high, etc., I am always expected to follow the rules, for example, a syllabus for all of my classes, doing homework, and especially papers which I need to follow and pay attention to in my planning, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading where instructions are provided in which tests myself and others technical communication skills. Even though I have not yet acquired that much experience in my major in college, being an architecture major in high school and participating in a handful of group projects, not only did my group have to follow instructions, but we also had to communicate and promote our ideas to the higher position. As a group, we had to show our designs and explain our ideas with words and in a program that is heavily determined by correct instructions. We participated in technical communication as we had to propose and beat other groups.
However, technical communication continues beyond a professional field; it is also relevant in my personal life. That can be seen in carrying out tasks like following instructions on how to build newly bought furniture, especially from IKEA, electronic devices, texting with one of my friends, and even my interactions on social media.
In conclusion, technical communication is an essential aspect of my life and many others as it shapes how I work, solve problems, and interact with others as a student and in my personal life.
Reading Response #2: Describe the main elements/ sections of a lab report. What is the purpose of each?
Lab reports are one of the most essential skills to acquire, especially when working in engineering and science fields. In engineering and science, the importance of lab reports goes beyond simple documentation. Lab reports are vital tools for analyzing, comprehending, and breaking down crucial information from experiments and hypotheses. Yet, as complicated as developing lab reports sounds, it uses essential technical communication we use in our everyday lives, like being persuasive, following basic rules, and writing letters or emails to someone in the professional field. Lab reports include the main elements that help you develop a report properly: the Title, abstract, Introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, Conclusion, and references. However, many lab reports have their unique style and format due to what is preferred by each person; many engineers and scientists have followed the standard structure for their reports for many years.
Starting with the Title allows you to gain your audience, as lab reports are based on persuasion. The titles should be informative enough to help the audience decide if they are interested in the report. An informative title doesn’t only influence readers but also allows scientists and engineers to meet their own needs. Titles are long and specific but must use words familiar to a large spectrum. The second element is abstract as it summarizes the report; however, each section should be only in a sentence or two. It should contain a quick yet informative context, such as the questions motivating the research, answers, and involvement. The third element of a lab report is the Introduction. Introduction is the section where establishing the work is essential. The Introduction includes the hypothesis and questions of the study. It should also include a review of a previous research report that is relevant to the lab report that is being produced (which is why making a detailed title helps engineers and scientists with their own needs) and why the lab report is vital to the field in the future, communicate the purpose of the study. The fourth element is Material and Methods, also known as equipment and methods, which allows the study questions to arise and conduct an experiment to ensure the results are credible. Methods should be in detail so that another researcher could perform the same experiment using the same material and methods, assuming that the reader is unfamiliar with the parts of the experiment; such an example is the famous elementary school work with making a PB&J sandwich using the students step by step instructions where all the details and steps are taken seriously.
The fifth element is Results. The section is an opportunity to present evidence to support the claims of the lab report. Because lab reports and research will always produce data, the result section allows the researcher to summarize that data and answer the relevant question or hypothesis in the Introduction. Discussion is the sixth element of a lab report. Also called analysis, the discussion section is where the researcher explains the lab results by presenting essential findings, trends, values, associations, statistical significance, and exceptions. The seventh element is References, as in all significant writing, citing your work. In this case, all sources used in the lab report are essential. Lastly, the Conclusion is the eighth element used in lab reports. It summarizes the primary information that was brought up in the report in paragraphs. A conclusion allows the researcher to review the purpose of the study and the hypothesis; it also allows the final opportunity to persuade the audience of the importance of the report.
Reading Response #3: Choose one subtopic from Chapter 9 and reflect on how you plan to incorporate it in future works in this class.
In Chapter 9, I plan to incorporate a subtopic in future works in Writing for Engineering: Writing Clear, Informative Paragraphs. I believe it’s essential to understand how to successfully develop an informative paragraph, especially the idea of making a paragraph. Many students forget that paragraphs contain crucial parts as they break down and summarize your whole essay or research. There are two kinds of paragraphs: a body paragraph and a transitional paragraph. While many people, even I, didn’t know the actual difference when writing paragraphs as we are all taught to make a point and support it, which is considered a body paragraph, it’s crucial to utilize the difference between two such paragraphs as we might see one being effective, especially in our upcoming lab report analysis paper. It is vital to understand the different structures of paragraphs and what elements are used to make a paragraph.
By understanding informative paragraphs and the elements used to make a paragraph, I can ensure my readers perceive my paragraphs easily by following the correct structure of paragraphs. Such elements are the topic sentence, where I can focus on providing the main points (thesis), which means it must be clear and make sense and not create suspense, as that might mislead my audience. Secondly, knowing the right way to use organizational patterns in my future works means that I understand how I transition either from topic to paragraph or from paragraph to paragraph. Paragraphs are known to hold most of the information about the work. Because they have the main ideas, those ideas must be proven by supporting texts, which I understand can’t be left out in any of the future paragraphs I develop in the class future works. Of course, being told to create a paragraph can be very vague, and I face the issue of how long the paragraph should be. I need to understand how to break down paragraphs in my future works and how much a basic paragraph length should be for each class. Writing clear, informative paragraphs is a cornerstone of effective communication in any academic or professional setting.
