Mymona Tasnim

The City College of New York

Professor Adam Bubrow

ENGL 21007

May 19th, 2023

Preparation for the Outside World: A Reflection on the writing course

I started the course thinking that this course will be the same as other English courses but I was actually wrong. This writing course turned out to be very interesting and different from any other English course I have taken so far. The only thing we were doing was telling our story. I learned a lot of valuable things while I was just telling my story. From learning how to introduce myself to presenting a technical description of a topic of my interest, I prepared myself to face the outside world throughout the course. 

The first task was to write a paragraph about myself.  At first, it seemed really easy but actually, it was difficult. I knew everything about myself but I realized that it is actually hard to write it. I was really confused about my skills. My professor did an amazing job to explain everything very clearly. I learned the difference between skills and qualities.  I am also a very introverted person. However, as I had to introduce myself to my peers, I learned to open up. It is really important to open up in front of everyone if I want to prepare myself for the real world that’s outside. 

 The next assignment was the most important one. I learned how to write a resume. I already had a resume as I had worked at multiple retail stores. However, after attending this course, I realized that I have made a lot of mistakes in my resume. I wrote my resume from scratch again to make sure that I stand up to my professor’s expectations. One of the most important things that I have learned from this assignment was writing a cover letter. I knew what a cover letter is but I did not know how to write it. I did not know that a cover letter is so important if we want to get a job. Learning how to write a resume and a cover letter will certainly help me in the future when I will look for jobs in my career.

The next assignment of our course was writing a lab report.  Previously, I wrote many lab reports for my science classes. However, I was always confused about the ideal structure of writing a lab report. Completing this assignment gave me a chance to learn how to write a lab report ideally.  This assignment also allowed me to learn how to do research. I became more skilled in information literacy. Before the assignment, I had no idea about how to use the CCNY library database.  I learned about Google Scholar.  All of these will greatly help me in the future when I will need to research something related to my major. 

The next assignment of the course was writing a group proposal about establishing a student center at the City College of New York. this was one of my favorite assignments of the whole course. that is because I learned the most important stuff in the assignment. I had to work in a team and that’s I learned how to be successful as a team;  I learned why respecting each other in a team it’s so important in order to create the best proposal. I had to do extensive research with the help of collaboration with other students. A big part of this proposal was APA Citation. I learned how to cite an article properly with the help of APA citation because of this assignment.  the presentation part of this assignment was really fun and exciting. I learned how to make eye contact and be more confident when I am presenting something to the audience. 

The last assignment of this course was writing a technical description of a topic related to my major.  The hardest part of this assignment was selecting the topic. The moment I saw the paper, I decided that I will do nuclear power. However, when I was doing the research I realized that it will be easier for me and I will find more relevant evidence if I choose hydroelectric power instead of nuclear power. However, I was really dumb that I wrote nuclear power inside of hydroelectric power in the quest. I was really sad that my points were taken off because of a stupid mistake of mine but I gave my best shot while I was presenting. From this assignment, I learned how to make a poster using Canva. I also did extensive research on the CCNY library database. I had to synthesize all the information that I found from the database, Google Scholar, YouTube, and different articles that I found online and present an amazing poster to my peers and my professor. All the things I learned from this assignment will be a huge advantage for me in the future.

This course was really important for me because I think that I have improved my grammar and writing style with the help of this course. I was always confused between the comma and the semicolon. I did not know about their usage. The quest was a really fun exam because I learned a lot about punctuation and the basic grammar rules. I never knew that audience and purpose are so important while writing something. I know the importance of A&P now. After completing this course, now I have this habit of drafting. Before, I never used to revise my writing before submitting it. Now I always revise my writing before I submit it.

This course will forever be a very interesting course for me. Whatever I learned from the  course will help me in the future. I can definitely claim myself as a better person because of this course. I look forward to using everything that I learned from the scores in the real world to be successful in life.