1) First and foremost, in 101 writing I significantly improved my writing skills. Even though my major in mechanical engineering, I fully understand the value of being able to self-express in English in the written form. Therefore, the class that was specifically designed for that helped me to rethink these improvements from the perspective of mechanical engineering.
Besides learning the essential skills of writing, I also managed to improve my skills in the English language in general. Through the diversity of the presented topics throughout the semester, I had the chance to look into them from the perspective of the non-native speaker. In some cases, assignments were designed in the way that students were expected not only to write in English as such but also reflect upon the given topic. That way, I significantly improved my knowledge on the phenomenon of homelessness in the US. By reading the information about the people who are left without any social benefits, I also had the chance to think of them from the perspective of an individual coming from the different country, yet facing the similar issues. Besides that, I significantly improved my vocabulary as I learned a lot of new words and also enhanced grammar.

2) As mentioned above, the class had many different topics, and most of them very really challenging. As I study mechanical engineering, I do not often have the chance to reflect on the issues the society in the US faces these days. For me, it was hard to research the information on the topic that I didn’t know. Therefore, I had to ask more experienced students on how to do research. The topic of bullying in the US was really challenging, as I did not know anything about it at all. But when I understood how to actually do research and what exactly I was required to do, I then started to look for the information. Eventually, I managed to write a piece and improved my knowledge on the topic. But initially, it appeared to be really challenging.

Also, it was really challenging to write a causal analysis as well. I didn’t know how to relate the cause and the consequence into the broader context. Therefore, I had to understand how it works in principle and then relate it to practice. Ultimately, I managed to understand the principle on how to define a cause and effect, and I managed to write a good analysis. Now, when I think back in times, it seems that it was the hardest assignment among all assignments that we had. However, I improved by skills of writing and understanding the basis of such types of assignments for the individuals who may be indirectly involved in the topic.

3) As mentioned in the examples above, my writing skills improved significantly, as we had a lot of writing assignments throughout the semester. I learned how to structure the texts better as well as how to deal with the new information. Moreover, I learned the topics of bullying and homelessness as well as some other issues relevant for the US. Besides that, I significantly improved my grammar. Now, when I have to write texts, I think of the punctuation and the use of tenses in the given sentences. When I have to do some more complicated tasks, I refer to dictionaries as I not now how to use them properly. Overall, I learned how to present the information to the public in the given settings. Thus, I overall improved my writing skills and can use English whenever it is necessary. This course helped me a lot.