My name is Jonny Moreira. I’m currently a computer engineering student at the City College of New York. The purpose of this portfolio is to demonstrate the different projects and essays I’ve had to do during the 2022 spring semester. As well as to write about how these assignments helped me not only achieve the academic goals set at the beginning of class but overall as a student. These assignments include the technical description, lab report analysis, engineering proposal/presentation, and self-assessment. The self-assessment can’t be qualified in the same category as the other assignment as this one entailed looking back on my work and reflecting on how my outlook on writing has changed.

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Self-Assessment

Throughout this semester, we were asked to complete various projects and assignments that were meant to help and guide us in achieving the course learning objectives.  In total there are 8 goals that we were asked to meet.  In trying to meet these goals, I’ve noticed my relationship with writing has changed.  I believe I’ve successfully met most objectives, and that throughout the semester I’ve shown that change.

The first objective is, “Acknowledge your and others’ range of linguistic differences as resources and draw on those resources to develop rhetorical sensibility”.  Throughout the class, I’ve had various opportunities to meet this goal.  One example is the many peer review sessions that we’ve had.  I got the chance to look at other people’s writing and see how it differed to mine, as well as have others look at my paper and see what can be improved through their own lenses.  Another example is the engineering proposal assignment, where we were asked to work collaboratively on the project.  Although most of our writing styles differed, we were able to use all of our individual ideas to make a solid basis for our proposal.

            The second objective was “Enhance strategies for reading, drafting, revising, editing, and self-assessment.  I completed this objective by doing peer reviews, as well as writing multiple drafts and outlines for my work.  As stated before, I’ve gotten a multitude of feedback on my work.  Using this feedback, I was able to improve my writing, as I was able to get information on my paper from a point of view completely different from mine.  I also got a chance to rework the way I go about writing papers, with the many assignments we’ve had throughout the semester.

            The third objective was, “Negotiate your own writing goals and audience expectations regarding conventions of the genre, medium, and rhetorical situation”.  This objective was more complicated for me to grasp compared to the others.  Going over the technical communication textbook in class helped me understand it more but I never really understood it until writing the technical description.  In the technical description assignment, we were asked to write about a technological mechanism and give information about its purpose and parts.  I spent a large portion of the assignment brainstorming how I’ll present the information in a way that almost anyone can understand it.  This idea was further reinforced in the engineering proposal.  We had the task of writing a proposal as well as making a video explaining all our points.  The use of different mediums as well as different types of audiences in these two assignments helped me understand and achieve the third objective.  This proposal also helped me in completing the fourth objective as without any collaboration this assignment wouldn’t have been possible

            The fifth objective was “Engage in genre analysis and multimodal composing to explore effective writing across disciplinary contexts and beyond.”  I don’t believe I truly completed this objective.  I’m still learning how different styles of writing can be effective in different genres, and how I can be able to use this information.  However, a good first step was the lab report analysis assignment.  I was able to look at lab reports of similar topics yet with different styles of writing.  I compared both and learned why certain decisions were made, and the benefit that they brought to the paper.  This assignment also helped in completing objective 7, “Practice using various library resources, online databases, and the Internet to locate sources appropriate to your writing projects”, as I had to look through the CUNY database to find lab reports I found intriguing and appropriate for this assignment.

            Objectives 6 and 8, “Formulate and articulate a stance through and in your writing” and strengthen your source use practices (including evaluating, integrating, quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, synthesizing, analyzing, and citing sources)” respectively, were achieved with every assignment and paper I wrote.  In most if not all assignments, I needed evidence to back up anything I’ve said.  For example, in the lab report analysis, I needed to back up my claims with facts.  I’ve also had to demonstrate my stance, such as in the engineering proposal where I had to demonstrate to the reader why our innovation would be a good one and how it’s beneficial.

            I was able to complete the majority of the course objectives.  These course objectives helped me have a better relationship with writing as well as change the way I see my writing.  I’m able to look at it more objectively as well as have more variety in the writing styles I can employ.