Category Archives: Blog

ENGL 301 Self Assessment

Strengths and Weaknesses

Overall ENGL 301 has been a fun but challenging course due to the unorthodox structure of the course. Unlike all the other courses or online courses I have taken, ENGL 301 has no lectures or video lectures and instead all of the information can be found through the weekly readings from the textbook as well as from the instructor blog. While this style was quite different I found it extremely effective as I was able to read through the textbook and learn all the material at my own despite the fact that there was no lectures. The textbook also did a very good job at explaining the technical skills through providing multiple examples per section.

One of the things I struggled most with during the course in regards to the assignments for the class was the overall structure of my writings. Formal pieces of writing such as professional emails, references, and etc all have extremely strict structures that must be followed closely. At the start of the course I would often make mistakes in regards to the structure of specific documents, especially with avoiding white spaces.

A second thing that I consistently struggled with was the overall tone in my writings. As a person who has never really written any formal documents before, it was difficult to always maintain a professional yet friendly tone during all of the written assignments.

FUTURE CAREER GOALS

Learning to write formal documents whether it is an email to a potential employer,  a resume, or a cover letter are all fundamental skills a person must learn when they start looking for their first job. I thought this course did a great job in allowing us to practice practical skills that we will definitely use during our job search.

A second skill that I thought that this course taught me that will really help me when I pursue my first full time job is time management. Unlike a lot of other courses this course really requires you to have the self commitment to stick to a schedule or else you will start to really fall behind.

The third skill that I thought this class taught extremely well was working in a group environment. From almost the beginning of class we were assigned to specific writing teams and we often times have to lean on the advice of our team members in order to improve our writing skills. It was also super nice to have people to reach out to when we were stuck on a certain assignment.

Web-Foilo Reflection

Creating a web-folio has been a challenging yet rewarding process as the creation of a web-folio really requires a lot of creativity and artistic skills which are all skills that I usually struggle with.

One of the most crucial aspects of designing a web-folio is the visual portion of the web-folio. This then includes things like font-size, font-style, overall page layout, images, headers, and etc. Personally for me I choose with the most simplistic design of using the the font size and colour scheme provided by WordPress. The only thing that I really changed from the default design of WordPress is the background colour which I choose a forest green like colour to fit the nature scheme of my web-folio.

In terms of navigation, a tool bar is placed at the top of the website which makes it easy for anyone to navigate the website. Also all the links to the different sections of the web-folio is also provided at the home page.

Overall the creation process of the web-folio was an extremely rewarding experience as it allowed me to use a lot of the technical skills I gained throughout this course. The web-folio also allowed me to review a lot of my old posts which I had worked on in the past. Hopefully in the future I will have more opportunities to create more web-folios like this.

 

 

Resume

Unit 3 Reflection

As a person who has never written a formal report this assignment was both exciting and challenging as it was a lot of fun to work on a report that had real life implications but there were definitely a lot of things I had to learn while writing the report. One thing that I believe massively benefited me was that I picked a topic and organization that I was extremely familiar with which made the researching portion of this assignment quite easy as I was given access to a lot of the data I needed from my previous co-workers. With that being said though the survey portion of data collecting was quite difficult to pull off as many parents of the participants were rather skeptic of the survey and it took some convincing before a lot of parents agreed to complete the survey.

A second challenge that I realized extremely quickly is that there is a budget to every single program a company runs. The Richmond Aquatics special needs program was no different and the fact that this was a non-profit program meant that the budget for this program was even smaller than the majority of the other programs that Richmond Aquatics ran. This then really limited a lot of the solutions we originally had on solving the staffing shortage issue of the program as additional funding was simply not possible for a non-profit program like this one.

The peer review process was definitely an interesting one as I myself have actually attended nwHacks which is the organization that Jason decided to conduct his formal report on. The problem that he is addressing in this report in regards to student engagement is a real one and I can tell you first hand that a lot of students whether its because of lack of guidance or motivation do not complete a project. I like Jason also agree that further incentives to the program such as free swag or possible interview from the company could help the program exponentially as better engaged students will lead to better quality projects that are produced at nwHacks which means the overall prestige of the event will also increase.

Link to formal draft Formal report draft

 

Email to writing members (3/3)

To: s.jason@shaw.ca

From: eric.c1997@hotmail.com

Date: September 20, 2019

Subject: Engl writing team

Attachments: Eric Chang’s Letter of Application

 

Dear Jason, 

 

My name is Eric and after reviewing your letter of application, I would like to ask you to become a team member on a collective writing team.

 

As a coder myself, I understand the difficulties of writing efficient and concise code that is easily understandable to other coders. Tesla is also an extremely difficult company to qualify for and the fact that you were able to get a summer internship at such a prestige company shows how hard of a worker you must be.  Another quality that you possess which I believe will be extremely beneficial in a group environment is the ability to work under pressure as there are going to be many deadlines we have to complete throughout this course.

 

I have attached my application at the bottom of this email for your reference. If you have any more questions or concerns for me please contact me here at eric.c1997@hotmail.com and I will be happy to answer any questions that you have.

 

Sincerely,

 

Eric Chang

Eric Chang’s Letter of Application

Email to writing members (2/3)

To: cherylchao.27@alumi.ubc.ca

From: eric.c1997@hotmail.com

Date: September 20, 2019

Subject: Engl writing team

Attachments: Eric Chang’s Letter of Application

 

Dear Cheryl, 

 

My name is Eric and after reviewing your letter of application, I would like to ask you to become a team member on a collective writing team.

 

As a person who has also worked with special needs children before, I understand both the difficulties and the level of dedication needed to take care of kids with special needs. As the level of patience as well as creativity you acquire when learning to teach special needs children are all attributes that I believe will be a valuable asset to any writing team. In addition to that, the technical writing skills you gained when creating presentations, email, and proposals during your summer camp job  are also skills that will massively benefit any writing team. 

 

I have attached my application at the bottom of this email for your reference. If you have any more questions or concerns for me please contact me here at eric.c1997@hotmail.com and I will be happy to answer any questions that you have.

 

Sincerely,

 

Eric Chang

Email to writing team member (1/3)

To: huntley.bain@gmail.com

From: eric.c1997@hotmail.com

Date: September 20, 2019

Subject: Engl writing team

Attachments: Eric Chang’s Letter of Application

 

Dear Hunter, 

 

My name is Eric and after reviewing your letter of application, I would like to ask you to become a team member on a collective writing team.

 

From reading your letter of application I was extremely impressed with the amount of work experience you have especially at a corporate level as you stated that you have worked with both PepsiCo and Sherwin-Williams. I believe that these technical writing skills you acquired at these large corporations will be a huge asset to any writing team. I also agree with your philosophy in group work and believe that communication and collaboration are the most essential qualities to have during group work. 

 

I have attached my application at the bottom of this email for your reference. If you have any more questions or concerns for me please contact me here at eric.c1997@hotmail.com and I will be happy to answer any questions that you have.

 

Sincerely,

 

Eric Chang 

Eric Chang’s Letter of Application

Email Memorandum

To: Dr. Erika Patterson ENGL 301 teacher

From: Eric Chang ENGL 301 student 

Date: September 20, 2019

Subject: Writing team application 

 

I have completed my application to join a writing team on my blog and attached below is my application letter.

 

This letter of application then includes:

 

  • Reason for applying and what I expect from the position
  • My experience in regards of formal writing ability as well as communication
  • An outline of my strength and weakness
  • My learning philosophy  

If there are any more questions or concerns for me please let know you can contact me here at eric.c1997@hotmail.com.

Eric Chang’s Letter of Application

Sincerely,

 

Eric Chang

Letter of Application

Eric Chang 

4900 Groat Avenue

Richmond, V7E5E3

 

September 20, 2019

 

ENGL 301: Technical Writing

University of British Columbia

2329 West Mall

Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3

 

Dear Technical writing class 301:

 

I am here to apply for a position as a member of the Enligsh 301 writing team. As a potential member of your team, I aim to create an inclusive environment that promotes teamwork and encourages feedback as we each continue to develop our technical writing abilities.

 

I am currently a fourth year Mathematical student at UBC who has acquired a bit of technical writing skills through numerous extracurricular activities. Despite mathematics being a field that requires little to no technical writing skills, I was able to develop my technical writing skills during my temporary position as head lifeguard of Richmond Aquatics. During my time as head lifeguard, I was tasked to write daily reports that concisely summarizes the events that occurred during my shift in a professional matter. The second task I was assigned was then to write formal email request to our supervisors whenever we ran low on supplies such as gloves, bandaids, and ointments. 

 

My strengths in regards to technical writing is my ability to be a direct and concise. A lot of this stems from the fact that all of the formal documents I have written have required me to summarize a large amount of information in order for the reader to read the report quickly. My biggest weakness would then be my lack of consistency in writing as mathematics is not a field that requires much if any writing skills.  

 

My learning philosophy is that everyone learns differently and at their own pace. As a person who has taught both swimming and mathematics for several years now I have discovered that a majority of people learn things differently. Personally I thrive in an environment that is acceptive of constructive feedback, as I personally believe that the best way for people to grow is to take and be acceptive of the advice given by others.

 

If you need any further information from me please contact me at eric.c1997@hotmail.com thank you. 

Eric Chang’s Letter of Application

Sincerely,

 

Eric Chang