Stance is defined as the attitude or position the writer has towards a topic. Stance was an element that I was already familiar with prior to taking this course since many writers use stance, even in fiction novels. However, this course taught me that stance is much more important in engineering writing than in fiction writing. The audience should always know how the writer feels towards a specific topic because this helps the audience form their own opinion on the topic as well.

For instance, in my memo, It was essential that I made it clear to Mr. Vincent Boudreau that I am unhappy with our schools academic advising. An example of this is shown when I say “There is no reason why an advisor should also be confused when it is their job to guide the students”. A clear stance helps fuel persuasion of the audience, which can ultimately lead to the purpose of the document being fulfilled.

Although stance was important for most of the semester, it was not very relevant in my lab report, titled “Bike Lanes and Traffic Flow in NYC”. The lab report is a mostly neutral document that only reports on findings of an experiment and their implications for further research. The Writer can provide some exigence for the experiment, but their stance on the topic is irrelevant to the results of the experiment and the purpose of the topic.

All of these documents can be found under the “Assignments” tab.