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.