Note: In the PDF file attached I forget to delete the plan section, lost the original .doc file so I guess It’s staying in.

Document12 Reflection (1)

Dear Professor Clasby reader.

As an engineering student I do enjoy taking a break from the blast of technical content and sitting down to write some creative worldbuilding. So, in this regard one could say I like writing. However, anything beyond the realm of Creative worldbuilding, (which is generally writing that isn’t spontaneously started by my own initiative), is something that I absolutely despise. It doesn’t matter if the writing is STEM related or not, I tend to put off writing assignments in favor of assignments that involve the solving of a technical problem. Part of this attitude comes from a sense of a STEMsuperiority complex; ‘Learning all this liberal arts mumbo jumbo is waste of time’ I would think to

myself, ‘I could be learning how to make robots, race cars, housing…etc’ I would think to myself. But I force myself to realize that such thinking is extremely irrational. It is self-evident that all ideas that aren’t written down or poorly communicated might as well not exist. Thus, I have no choice but to practice effective communication.

I already know how to write effectively, (that is to say, write in a, for a lack of a better term,(‘beautiful way’). However, going into this course one could say that I practiced two critical skills; Researching and quickly writing. In High School I could write eloquently, to the point that every sentence would flow to the other. This I could do, but a single paragraph would take an hour. In college this won’t work. So, I was forced to recognize that good writing doesn’t have to compete with Immanuel Kant, and likewise that not every sentence needs fabulous. Although the art of quickly writing needs to be practiced considering a looming deadline, the realizations I listed helped to speed up my writing. With respect to my research skills. The introduction and the forced usage of the academic databases broadened my horizons and gave me an additional toola to work with. But do not mistake by the mere fact of using with praise. Although Academic Search Complete produces only decent sources and no bullcrap. Google produces a huge amount of both bullcrap and academic sources; generating more good content than Academic search complete ever did. Only one scholarlily came from ASC, the rest, (all very legitimate material from respectable institution) came from Google.

What causes a person to have genuine curiosity in a particular field at any given time is complicated question of psychology but given my experience in this class I believe I’m justified in theorizing that curiosity is most definitely not caused by any sort of force, constraint or involuntary expectation. In fact, I could go a step further and theorize that as the level of constraints increases, the quality of the work decreases. Even as I write this reflective essay, the questions I’m being asked to specifically address are hamstringing my ability to make the writing cohesive. Looking back, I chose to write about how the radio contributed to the Early victories of the German Army because I already knew a tremendous amount of material on the subject and therefore, I concluded that therefore it would be the easiest to tackle. This was a mistake, although I had a genuine interest in this subject, the interest waxed and weaned, and in all likehood there is a chance that said interest insincerely came from the video game Hearts of Iron IV. Given a redo, a would pick a subject that would require me to research engineering to discover its impact on the world.

To conclude, did I make progress in my writing skill? It’s difficult not to, this is a writing course. But then I feel like I made satisfactory progress? Yes, but I could have done better. Although I’m easily able to label my feelings of STEM elitism as completely idiotic, long before I even started college. Recognizing feelings as stupid is a vastly different thing from not acting on feelings. Such feelings naturally made me more inclined to prioritize my STEM classes. As such, even though I likely passed the class, I can’t deny that my colleagues probably made more progress. Is this a good thing? Probably not. I’m going to get nailed when my boss asks me to write a technical report? I don’t know, technical writing is still more enjoyable to me than persuasive writing. To modify the words of Popeye ‘It is what it is, and that’s all that it is.’
Love. An Arrogant Jackass. Aidan Ogden