David Frank

English 202C
Professor Malsbury
Reflecting Back on English 202C

Throughout this entire semester to be completely honest I really did not think
as a young professional I had much room to grow. I will however, admit that there
are several faults of mine that are in much need of improving. As a network
administrator you can imagine I am not super enthusiastic about reading technical
documents from CISCO about their latest heavy duty routers. Under the guidance of
Professor Malsbury I have to say that I stand corrected. She has taught me through
various exercises how to be a better writer in ways that I would have never thought.
In addition, I did not think these exercises would be of much practical use. In an
effort to further my career outside of school and work I continuously challenge
myself by adding more certifications and credentials to my resume. I'd like to view
the brain as a muscle that consistently needs training or else it will not stay sharp.
In respect to what I actually like, or am required, to write my response is very
atypical. Part of my career as a network engineer/security specialist is to practice
the art of "Network Penetration Testing", or in layman's terms hacking. It is far from
your entertaining Harry Potter, Hunger Games, or whatever kids are reading
these days. Typically at work I will break into a network/server/database then I will
write up a very comprehensive report. Reports include the exploits I discovered, the
basic thought of methodology behind the vulnerability, and lastly my
recommendations on fixing the problem.
My main goal for this class was to really improve my writing abilities. This
would go a long way helping me in many aspects of my career. One thing on the
side I do forensic computing for law firms. An example would be I get hired to
recover deleted emails from cheating spouses and write reports. One thing that was
a requirement at Verizon was daily reports on security breaches. I was not as
professional as they would have liked. Several instances include times that I was
hastily writing a report while on the phone and while typing the report I must have
typed what I verbally was yelling. This resulted in a string of profanity randomly in
the middle of a report. It would not have been such a big deal except I was required
to CC all of the VP's. So I needed to work on focusing more on the task at hand. With
respect to what was mentioned in earlier this semester I would like to improve my
writing skills so that when I reenter my career I can be more professional. I totally
believe my experience in this class has without a doubt helped me.
I will chronologically go through a reflection of each assignment in this class.
During this semester we had 4 main assignments; An Analysis of a Technical
Document, an Internet Resource Guide, a Job Application Packet, and an Instruction
set. By far the Job Application Packet was the most influential and practical

assignment for me. However, that does not mean that I did not learn a great deal
about not only writing but using tools that Microsoft Word had to offer. For example,
the table of contents tool used in quite a few assignments was extremely beneficial.
The first assignment I would like to reflect on is the Technical Document
Analysis. Due to my unique background as a med school drop-out I chose a
technical document on the mechanism of action that the narcolepsy drug
modafinil has on the body. I chose this because I am fairly familiar with the
subject matter. The document is also complex and is already extremely
professional. You may ask why I chose a document that is seemingly just fine. Why
not choose something that had clearly visible areas that needed improvement?
Simple, I was bored and felt like challenging myself. (Frank, D. 2016)
In creating my analysis I sat down with my technical document and pulled up
some information at my desk. I had the printed copy of my technical document,
chapter 11 in my book open, and the PowerPoint slide that explained what we
should look for when analyzing. First, I read the PowerPoint and left that open on the
computer. After that I reread chapter 11, because it has a very straight forward
explanation of the different types of criteria we should be analyzing. I drew most of
my insight in picking where the document was effective and where it was not
successful from the book. Regarding my creative process, it is a complete blur. It is
for every assignment. The following paragraph will explain why. (Frank, D. 2016)
I know we are supposed to reflect on our exact writing process. This is very
difficult for me to do, even writing this final review for class. Now writing this it is
very hard to explain, but I will attempt to explain. I am extremely into brain health
and cognitive enhancement. So on a typical writing day I will wake up take
modafinil. When it comes time to write I will take Yerba Mate or Caffeine for a jolt of
creative energy. I only take those types of stimulants with the amino acid L-Theanine
which releases Gaba and Dopamine and smooths that energy out leaving for a very
extra clear stream of consciousness. Then I take a small amount of noopept, which
is a nootropic that reduces anxiety and increases memory. Lastly, I take
sublutiamate. It is a Japanese derivative of vitamin B1 which enhances cognitive
ability, reduces anxiety, and fosters creativity. (Frank, D. 2016)
This will always be my favorite part of writing these assignments. Basically
whenever I write an assignment for any class especially this class for this semester I
will budget all my writing assignments into one or two days of the week. Then, take
that cocktail of vitamins and amino acids, and I cant quite explain how but I will sit
down at the computer and words just flow out of me effortlessly. This writing
process has remained a constant throughout every entire assignment in this class
as well as others. I really wish I could explain it more, however I simply cant. Almost
forgot to mention the most important part of my writing process. Writing requires
lots of Deadmau5 music. Deadmau5s music is perfect for school work. It is very
repetitive and most of his songs are 7 to 9 minutes long.
Another constant I would like to mention that has remained through all the
assignments are the peer reviews. I received much more help from lecture slides
and Professor Malsburys verbal help. As the peer reviews may be helpful to some,
or I just had the bad luck of the draw, they did absolutely nothing for me. Whenever
an assignment was done I would share it with whatever group I was assigned and I

was offered little to no feedback. Thankfully I have some older friends who are
English majors that did help me out at first. So throughout this entire semester they
may have helped other people but I found them very unbeneficial.
The next assignment was our first group assignment, The Internet Resource
Guide. I was a little hesitant about it at first because I am used to being a tad bit of
a control freak of what gets submitted to my superiors. Upon initially finding and
sitting with my group I figured out our group topic based purely on visual
assumptions. We found each other, sat down, and started debating topics. I asked
everybody what they are interested in. After discussion I pointed out half the group
has headphones around their neck. From that point we assumed that we all had an
interest as young adults in music. After spit balling for 10 or 15 minutes we decided
to let our Internet Resource Guide talk about major influences in different genres of
popular music. Overall the group seemed very content picking this topic.
Our exact steps for creating this assignment were as follows. First, find our
group and pick the topic we wanted to do our Internet Resource Guide on. Then we
refined our topic as best as we could during class. Since I kept diligent notes during
most of our group sessions I filled out the paper that had our topic, audience, and
example sources. We reviewed, agreed, and submitted that together. Next we had
to develop a rough draft for a peer review the following Thursday. Initially we agreed
the Wednesday night before we would have each of our sections (each of us chose a
musical genre) submitted to me by 8pm. Steve surprised me by having a very
accurately done rough draft submitted before 8pm which was a tremendous help for
me. Unfortunately, other members must have been busy or forgotten the deadline. I
honestly did not mind, because this way I would receive an email with a section. I
could then add a section and do all of the formatting details then another section
would pop into my inbox. During the peer review we actually as a group used that
time to identify what we thought were our biggest mistakes. After that Kathy and I
split the remaining corrections. We then conversed via email and compiled our fixes
then submitted our final draft. (Frank, D., Oswald S., et al 2016)
The most difficult part for me personally was the formatting. Thank god I am
used to web design and CSS (cascading style sheets), which Microsoft Word rips off
for their styling hierarchy. Even with all of that past knowledge I assumed that
formatting everybodys information consistently would not be that big of an issue.
Wow was I wrong. This was the single most time consuming part of the project for
me. Just when I thought I would have the fonts lined up correctly, and the table of
contents divided up correctly, all of the sudden a curve ball would be thrown in. For
example, one of the biggest curve balls was discovering the spacing vertically was
different for everybodys submissions. In retrospect, I should have made a template
then given it to the team and had them use that as a layout guide for how I wanted
work to be submitted. Oh well, you live and learn. I overcame this by simply
chipping away at all the little details of the document and triple checking for
consistency over the course of 5 hours the night before our rough draft. So in the

future I will most definitely keep that in the back of my head, especially since a lot
of my career work will be done in groups. (Frank, D., Oswald S., et al 2016)
At this point our group had a rough draft and the majority of the work
completed. Kathy and I quickly went over our entire rough draft with red pen and
only found some minor inconsistencies. So as a group we were extremely confident
with the quality of work we had produced. Our IRG was written in a nice consistent
way. We had topics broken up very logically for our audience. The only areas I know
we needed to correct were very minor things. For example, some tips werent
addressed to the correct audience, we were missing page numbers, and the overall
font needed to be changed to Times New Roman. (Frank, D., Oswald S., et al 2016)
I have learned some valuable lessons while doing this project. Firstly, from
now on in the future I am going to just lie and have the groups deadline to submit
their work be a solid day earlier than I would ideally prefer. This way I am not
scrambling doing extra corrections until 2:30am the night it is due. This might sound
conceited, but I do believe that as group leader I helped guide us in a more efficient
fashion as opposed to somebody else leading the group. The good part was, that it
allowed me to have more control over what we were producing and let my voice be
heard more. The bad part being, I had some extra responsibilities. In the end it did
not bother me though. I would rather have more control and more responsibility and
earn a better grade than have less control and my grade potentially suffer as a
result. (Frank, D., Oswald S., et al 2016)
Our next project was the Job Application Package. I have to say this was by
far the easiest project and required almost zero effort on my part. There is not a
whole lot for me to really discuss about this project. As a young business
professional I already have a professional resume, I already had a text version of it,
a business card, etc. So I think the thank you letter was honestly the only part I
really had to type up. Regarding job listings I just check my email daily and I get a
minimum of 1-3 emails asking if I am available for work.
Some interesting things to note about this are that I did not have a linked in
account. I was able to create that rather quickly and effortlessly. Also, I was always
taught by my father who is a CSO at a very large utility company never to use color
in my resume. This was part of the assignment though. I tried to use basic color
schemes that match my existing business card and website. My Microsoft and Cisco
certifications just happen to have blue themed icons as well. Coincidentally it now
also matches my Weebly page. You could say Im quite partial to the color blue. I
honestly wish I could elaborate more on this particular project but there is not much
to elaborate on. The work was literally already done by me for myself, which in a
class full of younger students is definitely not the norm. (Frank, D. 2016)
The last project we did was a partner project. Since Steve really surprised me
during the Internet Research Guide assignment by being the only person that
completed his work with 100% accuracy on time I chose to go with him over other
students that had asked. Our next step was to think of a topic. This was not a
difficult task, he knew about my passion for automobiles and suggested it be car

based. I immediately said Oh lets try to simplify how to drive stick. From there
our brain child was born. (Frank, D., Oswald S. 2016)
We both conveniently have time off right before class. So every Tuesday and
Thursday we would meet up and use that free period before class to write this. I
would say within about the first two sessions we had completed roughly 9 of the 14
pages we had submitted. Since I type extremely fast I do not mind brainstorming
with people and just hammering away on the keyboard and getting the work done.
At the very end we decided after the third library session to delegate some work we
could do by ourselves. (Frank, D., Oswald S. 2016)
At this point I did Tips & Tricks on page 11, and the Glossary on page 13.
Steve handled grabbing pictures and elaborating on the basic terms I had listed off
the top of my head. He also Did the other miscellaneous parts such as Equipment.
For whatever reason, citing things is a horrible pet peeve that I really have to get
over before I find myself in an academic jam. It is not that it was hard; however it is
just annoying to me. So I have to give Steve full credit for properly citing our
sources. Once again, I will go on record saying it was a pleasure working with Steve.
He is very professional, punctual, yet fun to work with. (Frank, D., Oswald S. 2016)
Overall I had a fantastic time this semester. Class was lively and entertaining.
Even though my ability to write papers has dramatically improved throughout many
years of college and working in my field I still have my flaws. As a writer I have two
or three distinct flaws that I feel have certainly improved from this semester, but are
not fully shed as bad habits. I tend to write incredibly fast and that leaves lots of
room for errors. The errors are usually small things; i.e. incorrect usage of colons
and semicolons. Secondly, sometimes my sentences look elaborate but can end up
as gibberish. In the process of quickly mentally switching from rubric, to book guide,
to resources, and back to typing my fingers will type things that dont make sense
but look elaborate from far. Its nothing that a simple proof reading cant fix, but can
be difficult for me to spot unless I take a break and proof read my work after. I
definitely feel that this class has totally helped me with my biggest improvement;
slowing down, smelling the roses and proof reading.

Works Cited
Frank, D., Oswald S., et al. (2016, February). Internet Resource Guide:
Influential Artists in Music. Unpublished Manuscript. The Pennsylvania University.
Frank, D., Oswald S. (2016, April). Instruction Set: How to Drive a Manual Car.
Unpublished Manuscript. The Pennsylvania University.
Frank, D., (2016, March). Job Application Packet. Unpublished Manuscript. The
Pennsylvania University.
Frank, D. (2016, January). Rhetorical Analysis: Role of Dopamine Modulator in
Behavioral Stimulant Modafinil. Unpublished Manuscript. The Pennsylvania
University.