Sabrina’s Quest For Knowledge: Changing the World Into Words
…………“The true alchemists do not change lead into gold; they change the world into words.” –William Gass. Engineers, scientists, and even alchemists would not have been able to pass down knowledge for generations if they did not clearly express and write down their ideas. Clearly communicating, verbally or in writing, has a huge impact on the way an audience interprets information. While taking my Writing for Engineers class, I became more aware of the impact engineers have on society with their words. During my time in this class, I wrote a report about dice and probability, created a proposal for better bathroom equipment to improve CCNY’s facilities, learned how lipstick is made, improved my resume and cover letter, and interviewed a chemical engineer to get a better understanding of my major. Writing about topics I have never explored before has taught me how to creatively portray my information to an audience, and create a compelling argument as to why my project was relevant and had a unique purpose (A&P).
…………For my interview report, I learned about the big obstacles that are tackled daily by J&J’s Oral Care Principal Scientist Ellie Small. Ellie’s job requires her to research the safety of the ingredients used in products, like mouthwash, that consumers use every single day. As Ellie quoted, “As an engineer, I do the thinking so you as a consumer don’t have to.” After writing my interview report, I learned about the importance of an engineer’s job when it comes to efficacy and safety. This assignment taught me how to formulate and ask the right type of questions that would evoke an interesting and appropriate response. I learned how to efficiently draft a paper using many of the questions I asked and combine Ellie’s answers into an interesting, coherent paper.
…………Writing a lab report on probability and dice allowed me to objectively understand a topic I never explored before. Writing a report on something I have previous knowledge on would have been easy, but this assignment was a challenge. This report forced me to use the strategical mindset I have as an engineer to understand something completely new to me. I did a lot of reading about theoretical probability, and researched topics including percent error and data convergence. I also honed my research skills while using CCNY’s online library, which, overall, improved my information literacy. I had to extract relevant information from a research paper for my report. The use of technology for this assignment was also a major factor when it came to synthesizing the data collected from the dice rolls. Specifically, I had to use excel to create graphs on probability distribution and the frequency of dice rolls.
…………My favorite assignment was writing a proposal for creating cleaner bathroom facilities in CCNY. I enjoyed collaborating with a team of students from different majors. I think that our team, The Powder Room Patrol, was very diversified which allowed us to explore each person’s unique perspective. Some creative ideas we had included creating murals on the bathroom walls and installing sanitary, sensory sinks. As a team, we also had to prove why our proposal was necessary, so we surveyed the class and even found proof (pictures of dirt filled hand driers and grimy toilet seats) of the unkempt bathrooms of CCNY. Our team proposed three major plans (Basic, Premium & Golden Throne) that organized our proposal into three, financial options. To create these plans, we had to synthesize data from various websites on installation and material costs from construction companies like Home Depot. We had to cite these sources from where we derived these costs using APA format. Finally, we used technology for our PowerPoint presentation where we explained the importance of our proposal to an audience that is directly affected by these existing bathroom issues.
…………Writing a technical report about lipstick broadened my knowledge and understanding of a chemical engineering process I never explored before. This assignment allowed me to synthesize data from videos, articles and pictures of diagrams on the overall manufacturing process. I had to draft information from these different sources and used this to write a step-by-step procedure on how lipstick is made. I enjoyed the use of technology for this assignment, specifically PowerPoint. It allowed me to better explain an interesting process using colorful visuals of the red and pink lipstick colors created. Seeing how a lipstick is made from start to finish was very interesting. I appreciated learning about the various ingredients used and how chemical engineers formulate lipstick, starting from a beaker to being molded in an applicator tube.
…………Creating a resume and cover letter that was tailored to a job application was new to me. It helped me understand the importance of including the key words in a job application in my resume and cover letter. After editing my resume, I realized how significantly I aligned itself with the company’s values and credo. I also found it very interesting that a lot of the “principle accountabilities” in the L’Oréal job application were skills that we learned in our class. Some of these included: “Communicate and present the technology and new products to Marketing and different categories within the company”; “Communicate development challenges to management on a timely basis while showing creativity and resourcefulness to offer alternative solutions”; “Work closely with the cross-functional team.” In the technical description, I communicated and presented about technology. In my proposal, I communicated challenges CCNY faces with their bathroom facilities and worked with a group of engineers who are not in my major, which constitutes as a cross functional team. A lot of the real-world skills I learned in this class are found in job applications!
…………Aside from assignments, our Writing for Engineers class went on a “quest” to improve our grammar. We learned how the placement of a comma could completely change the overall meaning of a sentence. We also learned how to properly use colons and semicolons in our writing. Aside from our quest, hearing other students present their work on assignments such as the technical description and proposal was very informative. I liked analyzing how my classmates had unique ways of presenting information and learning more about their majors in different engineering fields.
………… Overall, I appreciated how this course taught me to work in diverse groups, speak in front of a large class, and communicate the purpose of an assignment to my respective audience. After taking Writing for Engineers, I have a better understanding of how to critically analyze and defend my work. As William Gass had said, “The true alchemists do not change lead into gold; they change the world into words.” Once I graduate, which will be soon, I will always remember the impact my words will have on generations of engineers ahead of me, and to be sure I communicate and write down my ideas clearly to all.
This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.
