Austin Smith

Mrs. Lynn Raymond

URWT 1103
December 1, 2015
Letter of Reflection
Now that we are coming to the end of the class, I can look back on the time that we had
and what my thoughts on the class are. In the beginning of the course, I didnt really think much
of it because I assumed engineers wouldnt really be doing much writing, but to say that my
perception of engineering did a 180 degree turnaround would be an understatement. I have come
to learn that technical writing is one of the most important tools to have in the engineering
profession. Understanding that writing is essential to engineering did change my thoughts on the
class.
The aspects of the class that I felt were most beneficial were the focus on writing actual
papers, writing on different topics in the class, and the concentration on team work. In high
school, the focus was more on literature and understanding the concepts of grammar and
contemporary writing and very little focus is placed on the physical act of writing. In the college
URWT course, there has been a heavy focus on writing. While not all of the writing has been
strictly technical, it has served to improve my writing skills and even broaden my vocabulary.
Writing on various topics in the class has allowed me to expand my horizons to an extent and
quickly assess the content of a topic to formulate a decent sized paper on said topic. This will
undoubtedly prove to be useful in my future career as an engineer as I will be called upon to be
knowledgeable on many topics and likely to do so in an expeditious manner. The focus on team

and group work has let me improve my social skills and fine tune my synergizing with people
from various backgrounds. In engineering careers, this will allow me to easily join the ranks of
any team I am placed into in the workplace and yield the best results from the team.
There were also a few aspects of the class that I felt were unnecessary and did not serve
to improve my future as an engineer. My largest complaint would have to be the fact that we
were required to cite our sources in MLA format. All throughout high school, we were tasked
with citing in MLA format, and while it might not be a skill we have mastered we have a general
understanding of it. On the other hand, Chicago style is an entirely new beast to almost all firstyear engineering students. I believe that our time would have been better spent if there was more
focus on using the Chicago style that will actually be implemented into our careers than on the
MLA format that we are familiar with. Most of the other complaints I have are a bit trivial, such
as perhaps adding a bit more structure to the class itself, better utilization of Moodle, and more in
class assessments. Overall, I dont have too much to complain about the class.