Let’s sum up the semester!

It’s time for me to sit down, take a deep breath, and start to scribble down my experiences from the past few months. As I type this self-assessment, a flashback of memories constantly hits the shore of my mind. It’s hard to believe this semester has almost come to an end. Recently immigrating from a totally different part of the world, this country is my new home. I would admit that America has been friendly to me and my College experience has been amazing so far.

Now let’s talk about English 21007. First day: Me walking down the hallway racing through time to get to my class. As I enter the class, I feel a bit nervous to be around people I don’t know. But that’s fine, I like meeting new people. Professor asks us to stand up and chat with people around me – makes things interesting and easier. Within the first 10 minutes of this class, I am already socializing with my class-fellows. My first impression of Dr. Alikhani was extremely positive. English 21007 as a whole, was a great opportunity for me to improve my writing as an Engineering student, as I collaborate with my peers to do group projects. In-class discussions were the best part and Dr. Alikhani has never let me get bored at any point in the whole semester.

My first class assignment was Cover Letter and a Resume which helped me find out what were essential features of a good resume and a cover letter. Second, we read Ray Bradbury’s exceptional writing “The Veldt”, which I believe was in the best short stories I have ever read. It also helped me think critically as a future Engineer, about how technology has become an essential part of our lives, thus it should be used wisely. Bradbury’s predictions from the 1950s left me stunned. Next, we had a memo to write. I personally enjoyed the memo because it helped me learn how explaining things precisely makes a big difference for my audience. Since I had never written memos before, this assignment was a great opportunity for me to learn how memos will be useful as Engineers.

We were given the assignment to conduct an experiment, and write a lab report on it. Our group decided to check how computers generate random numbers. We used Python and C++ to write code and determine whether the random numbers generated by computer were really random or we saw a pattern. Further, writing a lab report is a skill which an Engineer must acquire, so I must say it will help a lot. Writing Technical Description was another assignment for us. I chose to write on Apple’s recent product, which is their smart-speaker “HomePod”. I must say it was kind of challenging to write so many details because the product was released just earlier this year and there wasn’t much to write about. However, Dr. Alikhani really helped us with writing APA citations. I would personally say, after this semester, I will never find it challenging to cite my sources which so far has been a really difficult task form. Last but not least – Technical Proposal has been the favorite assignment. We as a Computer Science group brought forward the idea of Virtual Reality, and how it will shape our lives. It was a great opportunity for me to present in front of my class and show them amazing things technology can bring us.

English 21007 has itself been a great opportunity for me to learn so many skills in one semester. Assignments and discussions were extremely informative and helped us to write more like Engineers. Dr. Alikhani has been far by one of the best professors I ever had. I love her teaching strategies. I really thank her so for such a great semester!

Cheers,

Ahsan Fayyaz

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