“Practice using various library resources, online databases, and the Internet to locate sources appropriate to your writing projects”

The unique circumstances of our position in the engineering field, in relation to this course, made effective research, and the ability to find numerous relevant sources, all the more crucial.  It was so crucial, in fact, that we even had a workshop on doing this very kind of research.  Most of us are nowhere near seasoned engineers, or even knowledgeable about our field of interest.  This course also did not entail actually conducting experiments or actually establishing companies to complete contracted projects.  However, we had to write as if we were and did all of these things, and this required us to supplement our knowledge with extensive, appropriate research.  For my lab report, for example, I had to research numerous experiments that had actually been conducted in order to synthesize my own understanding of what such an experiment and its results might entail.  The same was true of my proposal, though the volume of sources required increased significantly for that project.  Even my tech description required me to scour the internet for what was ultimately quite a robust slate of resources (figure 26).

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