Syed Ali  

Ms. Crystal Rodwell 

Writing for Engineers  

September 17, 2019  

Reflection for Memo to City College President 

The memo to the president of City College was an assignment that really pushed me out of my comfort zone. Coming from a science school, my education through the last four years centered around science and technical writing so going into this assignment I already assumed that it would be a breeze. This was not the case however, when I realized that there was much more that went into writing at this level.  

For one, before starting my writing I had to consider the purpose. What am I writing about? Why am I writing about it? These were all questions that went through my head while I was writing this memo. Through this assignment I found that in order to effectively write anything you need to understand your purpose. Without it your writing is just words on paper; it has no direction. In my case, my purpose was to address an ongoing issue regarding the elevators and escalators in the school and how they are affecting transportation from floor to floor in the Northern Academic Center (NAC). Understanding this allowed me to stay focused and fulfill all the necessary components of the memo.  

After figuring out the purpose of my writing, I had to identify my audience before I could proceed. The assignment called for a memo to the president of City College so automatically I knew that it had to be formally written. As a result, I refrained from using contractions and tried to use formal terms and explain my reasoning. Throughout my draft there were instances of loose, informal writing. Ms. Rodwell even mentioned on Blackboard that the memo I had written was more of a conversation with a friend. While editing my draft I changed words such as “can’t” and “don’t” to “cannot” and “do not” to better fit the audience I am writing for. Along with formality in language conventions, I also had to know what prior knowledge my audience would have regarding my topic. I knew that the president of City College was familiar with the locations within the school, which is why I didn’t really go into a profound explanation of where everything is in the school. I feel like understanding my audience ties back to one of the course learning outcomes that state that I must negotiate my audience expectations regarding my rhetoric. 

Although this assignment is only the second assignment I’ve had in the class, I feel like I’ve made great strides as a writer. Before going into this assignment or doing any of the readings, I didn’t really know I would have to follow writing correspondences in engineering. I knew that I would have to keep things formal but, I didn’t know there are different formats that serve different purposes. I feel like now I’m more comfortable following a certain correspondence whether it be the memo, or the letter, or even the email.  

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