Reflection
In Bridge program, I have studied different courses to strengthen my skills in English. There are different courses in each there is a major focus on particular skills. In communication course, the main focus was to teach students the professional communication whether for academic environment or for general situations. Academically, I have learned how to approach a conversation in different situations. I have also learned how to prepare different types of presentations such as explanatory, white board, and small talk. There was another angle of focus which was on language quality. In this section, I got very useful feedback on my language in each assignment that I have submitted. I have fixed many problems that I had whether in grammar or pronunciation. Overall, it was a good experience in terms of familiarizing students with different communication skills accompanied with the proper use of language.
In writing course, the focus was on discourse community and writing across curriculum. I have explored my field by accomplishing a project, in which I analyzed writing conventions in computer engineering. I have also analyzed a featured journal in computer engineering field. Moreover, I was assigned to analyze the most common genre in my field which is technical reports. By achieving these different tasks, I feel like I am more engaged in my discipline’s community. I have the ability to professionally write different genres that involved in my discipline. I am also able to use the appropriate discourse of community. Currently, I am aware of citation style, discipline jargons, and the conventions of writing across computer engineering.
In the second semester, I used to write summary and response for a variety of scholarly articles. So, I have learned how to annotate an article to find the most important points and to determine what I want to include in my summary. It also helped to decide whether I agree or disagree with an author. In my second project, I was assigned to research a specific topic that is related to my discipline. After I chose my topic, I have learned how to write a topic proposal in which I highlighted the importance and the currency of researching such a topic. Then, I started to learn about how to pick sources to assist me to find information that is related to my research question. Overall, I have chosen ten sources and I have summarized them. Also, I have synthesized all sources together to produce a clear connections and arguments to help answering my research question. The last portion of this project was about the materials that I need to present my project in a conference. So, I have learned how to prepare a presentation abstract, a conference proposal, and a conference presentation. In all mentioned tasks, there were parts that are related to the correct use of language in each section. So, it was helpful to know about the proper use of language in different kinds of genres correspondingly.
The third course in bridge program was preparation for graduate students. This course helped me to engage with academic and professional life. I have learned about research and research methodologies. I have also learned how to prepare and organize the process of researching by preparing list that contains resources for research needs and knowing all steps that I need to produce an effective research. I was assigned to do different tasks to help me networking with community members in different settings such as conferences, workshops, focus groups, and others. Also, this course gave me the advantage to prepare myself professionally by creating resume, curriculum vitae, and this portfolio. It also gave me many great chances to attend lectures, a conference, and workshops.
Generally, I got many benefits from this program in terms of being mindful graduate student. I can say that I have better understanding academically or linguistically. I am ready for all tasks that are related to graduate study. I have learned most of expected tasks and most importantly how to deal with them in the best way.