Week 11: Revisiting an earlier post

With 2 weeks remaining of CSC148, we’re given time to revisit and reflect on an earlier post of our choosing. I’ve decided to return to my very first post: “The pen is mightier than the board” (Week 3), where (as a would be programmer) I briefly discuss the advantages of writing frequently and effectively.

I’ve also read classmates posts on this topic, so that I may get their impressions on why it’s important to write effectively in our line of work.

Challenging but pays off in the end

Writing is not everyone’s “cup of tea”, that much is clear. Writing slogs for CSC148 that were both informative and engaging was a challenge. But looking beyond our slogs and into the future, this writing could very likely take the form of supportive documentation, error logs, blogs and yes even long email chains. I was convinced in my first week, and I still remain convinced, that consistently writing on any relevant topic of programming, sharpens our minds and better prepares us for what I expect to be collaborative future work environments.

It’s all about communication 

A fellow classmate js Lim provided a quote in their post, “If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.” As blunt as this quote may be, it gets to the heart of the matter. To feel comfortable with programming concepts and confident in our abilities to use these concepts, we should be able to communicate how a snippet of logic works to clients and teammates that possess varying degrees of experience. Now in days, a big portion of this “explaining” comes in the form of written communication. Flexing our creative writing muscles now assures us that when push comes to shove, we are able to defend our ideas and convince others that our rationale is correct.