First Self-Assessment

My favorite assignments are the complaint and adjustment letters, resume and emailing to a professor. Starting with the resume, I think re-writing my resume was helpful because after I got back my resume, I saw the comments that professor made. In addition, I saw some of my classmates’ resumes as well which made me realize I should have added some more information on my resume and I should have taken some out.

I have never written complaint and adjustment letters before, so when we had this assignment I had no idea how to write it. After reading the textbook, I found it easy to write because I knew the format. However, these letters are very technical so they have to be written in a formal language, which was the part that I was having trouble the most. I was trying to avoid being too formal and I think I did a good job at these assignments. This was a very useful assignment because everyone probably would have to write these letters at least once in their life about a product or something that they did not like. Since I know the format now, it will be much easier for me to write one in the future.

            Another assignment that I found very helpful was sending an email to a professor. I always had a trouble sending an email to my English professor last semester. I did not know how to begin and what to write. In addition, I did not really know how to avoid writing long emails to professors. Therefore, this assignment helped me to write more professionally. In addition, I looked at my group mates’ emails as well and compared their emails with mine. We all had similar emails, which made me feel good, I knew that my email was not too short and was not too long. It was descriptive enough for the professor to understand without boring him.

            Before taking this class, my writing, in terms of being professional, was not professional enough. After taking this class and writing couple assignments, my writing has improved. Now I know how to respond to certain types of technical writings. For example, if I were asked to write an incident report before taking this class, I would not be able to write one because I did not know the format and the technical words that I am supposed to use. In addition, I have never written “meeting minutes” before. I think it was the most challenging assignment for me because of its formatting. I found it very strange and hard to write about.