ENG2003 PORTFOLIO

ENG2003 PORTFOLIO: VINCENT HASBUN (219520246)

LINKEDIN PROFILE: www.linkedin.com/in/vincent-hasbun

Hasbun_Vincent _TermProject1_Phase4_ENG2003.pdf

RANK OF WORK: This research paper is by far my best work. The paper's elevated level of communication quality was fueled by my interest in the paper's general subject (renewable energy). My interest drove me to ensure that an intuitive structure, effective and varied arguments, and conciseness and were all present in the paper.

ITEM 1: ENG2003 TERM PROJECT 1 - RENEWABLE ENERGY RESEARCH PAPER

ITEM SIGNIFICANCE: I chose this item because I simply consider it as my magnum opus of ENG2003, as well as potentially any other communication related work that I have done in other classes. It best reflects how far I have come as an effective communicator overall. I formed this opinion during the completion of this project. The paper has a well thought out structure, convincing arguments, and uses a variety of credible sources. The paper's argument quality is enhanced with it's significant use of relevant graphics and delivers all information with a fine-tuned conciseness.

COMMUNICATOR DEVELOPMENT: This paper marks a big leap in development as a communicator. This project revealed to me the importance in investing time in planning, developing, critiquing, and adjusting a technical report. The final product of the project has demonstrated to me that I have the potential to be an effective written communicator when I follow proven practices to effective communication. Practices taught in ENG2003 such as the 7 C's of Communication were employed to achieve the paper's higher level of effectiveness.

COMFORT ZONE: This paper did somewhat push me out of my comfort zone. Specifically, the project surrounding this paper forced me to take into consideration the constructive criticism of others. I normally do not ask for peer feedback due to it generating indecisiveness in me. I spend large amounts of time deciding whether or not to include a peer's less trivial suggestions (suggestions beyond proofreading edits) in my paper, as I am unsure if it truly enhances it. To avoid this time costly indecisiveness, I typically avoid asking peers for suggestions. For this project, I was required to make take into consideration the criticism of others in order to improve my report.

Hasbun_Vincent_assign3_handout.pdf

COMFORT ZONE: This brochure did push me outside of my comfort zone. Specifically, it required me to simplify my terminology and explanation of complex topics given the brochure's audience (high school students). I was not used to explaining technical concepts at a high school level. Throughout college (and now university), I have used a vocabulary (in formal writing and informally when speaking) that is at level above a typical high school student. Furthermore, I have always been a very curious and detail-oriented person. I am naturally attuned to long, very detailed explanations of how something works. As such, I often deliver the same kind of explanations. During the creation of this brochure, I had to be especially careful to keep concept explanations simple enough for a high school student to understand. This included using simpler terminology. In other words, this assignment pushed me to deliver information in a correct manner to a target audience that I am not used to writing for.

RANK OF WORK: This is not my best piece of work. Although it accomplishes it's purpose adequately, it can be further improved if criticized by actual high school students. Their criticism would be greatly insightful in making further revisions and additions in order to better convey concepts to them. Not one high school student's feedback was asked for during the development of brochure. Since the brochure has never been tested, it's effectiveness in communicating technical concepts to a high school can only be speculated by those who are not part of that audience. Given my tendency for complex explanations, there is a high likeliness that the brochure's terminology and explanations can be further simplified to better convey information to high school students.

ITEM 2: ENG2003 ASSIGNMENT 3 - RENEWABLE ENERGY HANDOUT

ITEM SIGNIFICANCE: I chose to showcase this handout (or brochure) because it best reflects my effectiveness in communicating to various audiences. Specifically, it demonstrates my ability to articulate complex ideas (such as solutions to problems faced with renewable energy sources) to a high school and university audience effectively. In other words, it demonstrates my ability to communicate correctly when given a specific audience.

COMMUNICATOR DEVELOPMENT: This brochure demonstrates how I incorporated my personal strengths to become a more effective communicator. Specifically, using my strong visual learning style helped to concisely convey complex concepts. I have always been a more visual learner. In classes, I learned concepts much quicker when I was given a visual element to look at such as a graph, a diagram, or a schematic. The assignment centered around this brochure required me to incorporate visual elements to better convey messages to the target audience (such as high school students). Given my personal learning style, I managed to find imagery that helped conveying the brochure's topics very quickly (as imagery keywords to search for came to me very easily). Because I had the imagery to look at while writing the brochure, the brochure's bullet points had a strong synergy with the imagery. My references to (and appropriate placement of) straightforward imagery in the brochure enhances the communication of the brochure's concepts. Looking at the imagery while writing also aided in making the bullet points give simpler explanations for high school students, thus aiding me in communicating more correctly.

Hasbun_Vincent _lec02activity_ENG2003.pdf

COMFORT ZONE: Surprisingly, this piece did not push me out of my comfort zone. This is because this lecture activity reminded me of my discussions with my friends. The lecture mainly involved discussing and explaining metaphors to others. Often times when describing events of my life to my friends, I use a metaphor. They often times do the same. Overall, participating in this lecture activity with my classmates felt very natural to me.

RANK OF WORK: This piece is not my best work, but one of my best works. It is one of my best works due to it's exceptionally concrete metaphor. What holds this piece back (specifically, what I have written for question 2) is that it can be rewritten to be more courteous to readers. Specifically, while there is no blatant insult or rudeness in what I have written, the metaphor might come across as egotistical to some readers. This is due to the fact that I am comparing engineers to soldiers. While being an engineer is impressive, comparing one to a soldier (a dangerous and serious profession) can easily come across as an exaggeration of importance. This perspective is relatable to those working in the skilled trades, as many of them have negative experiences with engineers. As such, a tradesman can find this metaphor egotistical. As a future engineer who will communicate with tradespeople often, I will have to work on making my communication with them more courteous.

ITEM 3: ENG2003 LECTURE 3 ACTIVITY

ITEM SIGNIFICANCE: This completed lecture activity was chosen because it exemplifies my ability to effectively communicate ideas related to my own life experiences. Writing about subjects related to lived experiences (such as developing an engineering career) brought out some of the most concrete explanations of concepts that I have ever written (such as the explanation given in question 2).

COMMUNICATOR DEVELOPMENT: This piece marks a milestone in my understanding in how to communicate ideas more concretely. During the writing of this piece, I observed that it was particularly easy for me to create an impactful alternative metaphor for the engineering pipeline. The metaphor was vivid and evoked motivation to continually improve in expertise and craftmanship. I concluded that it was easy for me to make a concrete alternative metaphor to the engineering pipeline because I was articulating a concept of something important to me (my engineering career).

Vincent Hasbun 219520246 A2 Part II Infographic.pdf

RANK OF WORK: this is not my best work. Although the infographic conveys the topic (fundamentals and application of mechanics of materials) coherently and concisely enough, it's coherence can be improved. For example, the sentences related to the images could have been written as captions within those images (instead of referring to figure numbers). This would have served two purposes. Firstly, it would have saved paper space so that more content to be added. Secondly, and more importantly, it would have improved the coherence of the overall assignment. Those who read these sentences as captions will find making connections to their corresponding image more intuitive. Visual elements paired with these captions such as arrows pointing to regions within the image would also increase coherence.

ITEM 4: MECH2301 ASSIGNMENT 2 PART 2 INFOGRAPHIC

ITEM SIGNIFICANCE: This infographic from my Mechanics of Materials class was chosen because it best reflects my overall capabilities as a communicator. More specifically, it reflects my ability to convey an entire topic of a subject (fundamentals and application of mechanics of materials) in a concise and coherent manner.

COMMUNICATOR DEVELOPMENT: This piece marks a milestone in my development as a communicator. In previous college and university class writing assignments, I would be given a generous page limit (8 - 20 pages generally speaking) to cover a subject extensively. As mentioned before, I am used to writing long, detailed explanations in writing assignments. The challenge with this particular assignment was that the infographic had to thoroughly cover a major topic in the class within one page (excluding the works cited list). This was a direct challenge towards my habit of long, detailed explanations. Given this challenge, this assignment required me to be more thoughtful in the paraphrasing of my sources and use of imagery. The end result proved that I can present a topic coherently and concisely enough when faced with challenging restrictions (such as a one-page limit).

COMFORT ZONE: This assignment definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone. As previously mentioned, I am accustomed to more generous page limits when explaining concepts for a written assignment. This particular assignment's 1-page limit caused me to spend much more time re-writing sentences. Sentences had to be re-written to be concise to a degree that I was not used to. Sentences were also condensed in order to make space for synergizing imagery and sentences (aided in the coherence of the assignment). An example of synergizing imagery would be how figure 3 of the infographic helps the audience understand the real-world application of the concepts illustrated in figure 1. The last sentence in the analysis portion (enclosed in the red box) makes connections to the approach section (enclosed in the green box).

PERSONAL PROJECT: MINIATURE AIR COMPRESSOR

What inspired me to pursue mechanical engineering was my love for tinkering and machinery. Part of being an engineer is being able to communicate your ideas and concerns clearly to individuals who can help you in achieving your goals. This became apparent to me when discussing my compressor's design challenges to others. There was an instance where I was asking a coworker for advice regarding a mounting solution for the exhaust valve (the metallic part sticking out of the compressor in the images). To clarify myself, I kept rephrasing my sentences to him to no avail. He continually struggled to understand the exact challenge I was faced with. Finally, when I sketched a picture and presented it to him with a verbal explanation (that I thought up beforehand), he understood exactly what challenge I was faced with. After this, he was able to provide me with a suggestion that made sense in the specific context of my design. His suggestion was used in the compressor's final design.

Ever since this experience, I approach complex technical questions differently. In the past, I would impulsively approach others with whatever comes to my mind first regarding the technical challenge. This is what I did with my coworker regarding advice for my air compressor. This caused my question to be unclear to others at times. Now, I plan the phrasing of the question ahead of time. Additionally, if the technical question is complex and regards physical machinery, I would make an accompanying sketch (or take a picture) ahead of time to better convey my questions.

In short, I found that my personal project required me to improve my communication skills in order have the project progress further. This project inspired me to continually improve the clarity of my technical communication towards others in order to get the answers that I need.

WhatsApp Video 2024-04-22 at 8.34.58 PM.mp4

REFLECTION

I would describe describe my ENG2003 experience as one that caused me to be introspective. More specifically, I found myself reflecting on the mechanics of my personal communication style. Learning and applying the 7 C's of communication over the course of this class has caused me to reflect on my personal strengths and weaknesses as an effective communicator. An example of my strengths being evident was the development of the first term project. My first term project proves that I can provide complete communication. Given the generous page limitation, it was easy for me to provide all required details in explanations and arguments without coming across as too in concise. I am a detail-oriented person, so providing detailed, complete explanations was very easy. In contrasts, an example of my weaknesses being evident was the development of assignment 3. Assignment 3 (the handout/ brochure) proves that I can improve in areas of correctness. During the development of the high school section of the brochure, I spent an abnormal amount of time rewriting sentences that I initially (but incorrectly) believed to be understandable to high school students. My overall experience in ENG2003 opened my eyes to the blind spots and strengths of my communication skills.

The course was not what I expected it to be. Initially, I expected this course to be about how to properly and effectively communicate to other engineers specifically. Going through the course assignment, activities, and lectures made me realize that this was not the case. One assignment in particular that made my expectation evidently false was assignment 3 (the brochure). When I found out that the brochure had to be written for a high school student audience, I realized that my expectation was not reflective of the course's actual purpose. Contrary to my expectation, this ENG2003 is about how to communicate effectively in general. This expectation came simply from the course title, that being "Effective Engineering Communication".

I found the resume and cover letter content to be the most useful. This is because that particular content is relatively more practical than other concepts taught in this course. To expand on this, to get any job, a resume (and often a cover letter) is required. Being able to make an effective resume and cover letter is a skill that is always useful to have. People at different ages and stages in life submit their resumes and cover letters in order to get employment and support themselves. On the other hand, while the concepts of communication taught are undeniable truths, many engineers and non-engineers alike apply only a few of them, and manage to keep their job. Their work performance can definitely improve with the implementation of the 7 C's and 9 axioms of communication. Despite this, employees with flawed communication skills will not necessarily be let go because of this weakness. Some workplaces may even have a culture of bad communication practices (often due to organizational issues). Meanwhile, given the competitive job market, resumes and cover letters need to be well-written for applicants to even have a chance at employment.

I found the editing and feedback topic the most interesting topic in ENG2003. This is because it is interesting to see how others write formal class papers in comparison to yourself. You get to examine the strengths and weaknesses of someone else's natural writing style. Seeing the flaws in someone's written work emphasizes the importance in communication fundamentals taught in class. This is especially interesting due to the fact that I (and many others) rarely have the opportunity to review a peer's work at all for a common class taken. For example, I got to review the drafts of my peers for the term project. Reviewing their work made me realize that concepts such as clearness and conciseness in written arguments are especially important.

I would describe my communication abilities before taking ENG2003 as lacking clarity. As described in my personal project section, I often did not prepare the phrasing of my question ahead of time before asking them. because of this, at times, those I would ask the question to would be unsure of what exactly I was trying to ask them. This would occur before I took ENG2003. After taking it and learning about the 7 C's of communication, I have realized that clear communication is key to have those around me understand my question's purpose. In short, I would describe my current communication as relatively more complete than before.

The communication skill I improved the most would be presentations. Before taking this course, the bullet points on my presentation slides were essentially my script. My presentations felt very forced. After numerous presentation rehearsals with my team for assignment 4 (a group presentation), I found that my presenting style became more nature. The multiple rehearsals made me know my general talking points by heart, and allowed me to add improvised sentences and words during the final presentation. This caused me to deliver a more audience-engaging presentation than my usual performance. This corresponds to the 8th axiom of communication. This axiom states that effective communication is audience-centered.

I still need to work on cover letter writing as a communication skill. More specifically, I need to work on the conciseness of my cover letters. Often times during the course of this year, I have struggled to keep my job application cover letters under a page in length. Many sentences in my cover letter can be rewritten to be shorter while still conveying the same amount of information.

ENG2003 has changed the way I approach presentations that I will deliver in future classes and projects. As described earlier, I found that my presentation skills were the one aspect of my communication performance that has improved the most. Completing ENG2003 (more specifically assignment 4) has caused me to approach the rehearsal and delivery of future presentations in a new way. This new way (that being rehearsing a presentation enough to know it's content by heart) will allow me to deliver more natural sounding and audience engaging presentations. As for my future engineering practice, ENG2003 has reminded me the value of clear communication when asking for the assistance of others. Learning about clear communication as part of the 7 C's has reminded me that clear communication is needed for others to understand the point of my question. From now on, I will give my question's phrasing forethought instead of impulsively asking something. This will reduce the amount of confusion that my future coworkers will face when trying to understand my questions.

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