FORMAL REPORT DRAFT

Research Process

The research process has been easier and harder than I imagined. What I thought would be difficult turned out to be painless and what I thought would work well turned out not be so. From previous experience, I thought it would take a lot of time to set up and conduct interviews with the past and present executives or they would not want to participate; however, the majority of them agreed and they went by quickly and smoothly. I also imagined that I would have to advertise at least 3 times or go out and ask people in person to fill out my survey in order to get my desired sample size of 20. Surprisingly, I only had to advertise once and I had 22 respondents within 3 days.

I figured that there would be a lot of published articles on the benefits of getting involved with university clubs and organizations for my secondary source, but this was not the case! There are no formal studies or research on this topic other than what has been purported by American colleges. Therefore, I had to adjust my research process by using the triangulation method which serves to find commonalities from multiple sources and validate the data at the same time.

Organization and Writing

My current outline is significantly different from what I had posted on my team forum. I had to cut down my introduction because it would have ended up being five pages long otherwise. So I took out some sections but added other ones as my writing progressed. When I realized that additional information was needed, I added them in for the reader.

The changes made in my research process also affected my outline. I added a section on the purpose of surveys and a section on triangulation. I collapsed results and analysis into one section because it would be very boring for the audience to read about the results when they can look at charts. I also had to reorder many parts of my outline. I think the lesson to be learned here is to be flexible; one can only plan and anticipate so much of what could happen.

PEER REVIEW

I have picked up a fantastic tip after peer reviewing Marvin’s formal report draft. He had a “for” section in his title page and it neatly indicates his audience and for whom the report is intended. Peer reviewing his draft also affirmed my decision to collapse my results and analysis section into one and not just state the results when they can be viewed from charts.

Marvin gave me some great insight on what needs to be changed. After the reminder of who my audience is, I will remove the section on “Profile of a BCS Student” and add “Scope of Inquiry” back into my introduction. Marvin also provided me with some excellent suggestions, all of which I will implement.

Overall, I have learned the importance of breaking down a large project like the formal report into small chunks. Everything seems less daunting and easier to manage when I have a writing plan and when I concentrate on one thing at a time.

LinkedIn Profile Reflections

I had already created my LinkedIn profile before the start of this assignment. The layout and format of LinkedIn has changed since the last time I updated my profile, making it difficult for me to list my projects in chronological order. Therefore, I had to manually change every project.

While refining my profile, I discovered that there are many ways to professionally present myself on this online platform. However, it is best to have my LinkedIn profile mimic what my resume would look like. I learned just how important the summary section is while browsing through the connections in my network for inspiration. The summary section can really make one stand out in a crowd if written properly.

Formal Report Reflections

Formal Report Proposal

Coming up with an appropriate topic for my Formal Report was easy as I knew I wanted to write about the BCS Club. The challenge was in defining the scope so that it would be broad enough to fill out the required page length, but also narrow and specific enough to give me a direction in where my research should go. I did have problems with my topic in that it would not meet the required page length and it would not have proper secondary sources. I rectified these problems by adding another solution to investigate.

Formal Report Progress

I am satisfied with the progress of my report because I immediately addressed the problems that I had encountered. My revised proposal is attached below and it includes corrections from the peer review that I received from Marvin. My revised proposal also includes my additional solution which is formatted in Italics.

I have a clear vision of how my Formal Report will come together and what it will look like. I have a good grasp of the process and what to do since I have written business and technical research reports before. However, I wrote those reports with a team of others so I am a little intimidated to write this report by myself. I also feel the timeline for this report is too aggressive in that a project of this magnitude should be allowed more time. I am afraid that I will produce a lower-quality report due to such a tight schedule. Hopefully my survey and interview questions will be approved quickly so that I can begin to conduct my research right away.

Peer Review Process

Peer Review of Marvin’s Proposal

Reflecting on my peer review for Marvin, I have learned that I focus too much on grammar and style rather than on content. Grammar, sentence structure, and paragraph flow are all important, but ultimately it is the content that matters the most. Because of this, my peer review was too short. I will focus more on content for next time and produce a longer peer review. Please see my peer review for Marvin in the hyperlink below.

The Peer Review Process

The peer review process has been very helpful. I really appreciate the constructive feedback that I have received from my writing team. They identify the areas that I can improve upon and the areas in which I should continue to do well. They also catch some glaring errors that I do not see. The suggestions they make are very logical and easy to understand. The most important thing I have learned from this process is to use headings and sub-headings for organization.

ENGL 301 Angela Chen Formal Report Proposal Revised

Assignment 2:1 – Peer Review for Marvin Cadano