Malik Quow

May 23, 2022

                                                        Reflection 

Over the course of the semester Technical writing has taught me many different ways to articulate and and present myself to a group of people or company. For those who don’t know, technical writing is a writing discipline that is sometimes defined as “simplifying the complex”.

Technical writing involves communicating complex information to those who need it to accomplish a task or a goal. It is often useful when trying to articulate information geared to a specific audience in order to enable a set of actions on the part of the audience in pursuit of a defined goal. During this semester my class was considered a hybrid class, (online/in person). Due to this my classmate and I were not able to conduct group work in order to better our skills in technical writing. However, we did use discussion boards and peer review work as a way of helping one another better our work.  In our discussion board we were given chapters to review over and basically explain what our takeaway was from that specific chapter. Through these discussions, us students were able to learn from one another and use each other’s ideas to  future our understanding of the chapter. For instance, we were tasked with an assignment in which we had to pick a term frequently used in our majors, from this we were tasked to define the term and make sure the definition was fluent and understandable. This assignment not only helped me understand how to write a proper definition but it also informed me on what type of terms are used within my profession. When I first started ELA, I was never taught to understand my audience and how they would view me as a person based off my writing. Through the semester this was one of the most important parts of technical writing, this is because when writing an informative essay or a technical description you must understand who your audience is, and why you are telling them this information. Not to mention, you have to understand what the audience is expecting when reading your paper. For instance, say you are writing a technical description on how to build a coffee table, you must know what your audience is expecting from thai technical description, this means that you have to provide the necessary information needed to help the reader understand your technical description. Technical writing has helped me understand that keeping your audience engaged and providing the right information for the specific group that you’re presenting to can make it easier for both parties to understand and discuss. The goal of technical writing is to help students of my profession (Civil Engineering) and other professions like mine to explain internal procedures, design and produce products, implement processes, sell products and services to other businesses, or define policies. Having this type of skill can provide students like me with the necessary tools needed to fluently explain a project in my profession. To Conclude, this semester of technical writing has helped me develop my presentation skills and my writing skills. Having this type of class helped me understand the necessary tools that I need in order to be a successful engineer within NYC.