Haneul Jang
This class was one of the most difficult classes in this semester. In my opinion, my major or math class was easier. First of all, English is not my mother tongue. I can understand what the professor said what to submit like cover letter, proposal and so on. As everyone knows, writing is very different from speaking or reading. I took and English test to transfer to this college. The test was TOEFL which contains reading, listening, writing and speaking. The most difficult part was the writing for me. The reason why it is difficult to write seems to be because of one’s own opinions and thoughts. It’s impossible to write if you don’t have a clear idea. The hardest part of these assignments was to decide the topic. For example, MEMO, technical description, lab report and proposal, I spent a lot of time deciding topic on these projects.
In this class, I think I learned how to choose a good topic and write with good flow. The EGNL 110 class I took last semester basically taught me how to write. And then, this class taught me more about writing in detail. It is the class for an engineer. So the professor explained more detail about these things in a memo, lab report or proposal. I used to use the MLA style before, but this class used the APA style. At first, I did not know about APA style, so it took me a long time to write. Writing APA style is still difficult for me. And if you look at the first draft of the memo or technical description, there will be a lack of references. When I first did it, I asked a lot of internet or friends because I did not know well. The second difficult thing in this class is to write reference. I never really learned how to write reference. I learned about the difference between MLA style and APA style through this class. I have lived in the U.S for a year. So it is still difficult for me to listen, speak, and write. I don’t know how long it takes for other students to submit their assignment. But what’s certain is that I take much longer than they do. At first, I thought of this. I was so jealous of people who spoke English as their first language. They will be easy to understand and easy to write. But I wasn’t. writing throughout the semester was so hard and the last presentation was really stressful. I really wanted to avoid the presentation. I could make a presentation in my native language, but I was so nervous when I made the presentation in English. And it was a team project, so if I made a mistake, our team couldn’t get a good score, so it was more burdensome. I am very grateful to our team. My team always understood me.
I think I learned a lot in this class. All the assignments are really necessary for me. In fact, many people think that writing is not important. They also think that math or science is more important. However, my opinion is completely opposite. For engineers, writing is the most important thing. Their research, their data, everything must be written. I learned how to write better systematically. And my English has improved even more (spelling and grammar). It was a really necessary class for me, who lacked English. And it’s one of the classes that gave me confidence. It was a class that had a lot to learn.