Unit Three Reflections
In Unit Three of ENGL 301 Technical Writing course, we had the opportunity to craft a memorandum to a fictitious student to help correct a professional email, we had to construct a formal report draft, and lastly provide a peer review of a classmate’s formal report draft. Each of these tasks provided a chance to practice the technical writing skills we have developed in this course as well as reach beyond our learning, and research for our formal report drafts.
Memorandum Demonstrating You-Attitude
In this exercise we aided mock student Evan Crisp in tailoring a more professional email to a professor. This task highlighted the importance of using a You attitude, that is putting the reader first, especially when enlisting the help of a superior. This idea of addressing the reading in a more personal and respectful manner goes a long way when asking for help and maintains and air of professionalism. Furthermore, this task taught me about avoiding the use of imperative verbs when providing feedback. I initially struggled with using too many imperative verbs, however, the feedback from this task helped me greatly when it came time to peer review my partner’s formal report draft.
Formal Report Draft
In the second task of this unit, we were challenged to write a first draft of our formal report. At first this tasked seemed daunting as the target length of the report was the longest assignment yet. However, using the outline I had provided in Unit Two along with taking the time to map out the structure of my report I was able to build a first draft that I am quite proud of. My biggest takeaway from this process was how the investment in time spent ensuring that the report would follow a logical flow, maintained a structure that told a story, and kept the target audience in mind enabled me to write efficiently and with passion all to enhance the reader’s experience. Moreover, I was able to further develop the skill of creating and integrating graphics to add more brevity to my report. I am becoming more confident in writing longer proposals, and I am looking forward to polishing up my final report.
Peer Review of Formal Report Draft
In the final task of this unit, I was given the chance to peer review Corbyn Kwan’s formal report draft. Corbyn has a unique proposal, and his draft covers a variety of topics all the while maintaining a logical structure so the me (the reader) does not get too confused. Corbyn’s report did have some issues particularly in the Data section relating to figures and the data presented. This review process providing me the opportunity to build on what I learned and feedback I received from task 3.1. I was able to offer suggestions without the use of imperative verbs in a way that I believe will improve Corbyn’s report. Reading Corbyn’s report with a critiquing lens also helped me analyze my report further as there were various organizational structures present in his report that could be beneficial in mine. Corbyn provided a review of my report, this is my second peer review from Corbyn, and I am always grateful for his feedback, he often catches my grammatical errors and overuse of technical jargon. As always, the peer review portion provided valuable feedback.
Overall Unit Three was the most challenging unit thus far. I was challenged to apply a new technique in the You Attitude assignment and I was challenged again in developing a draft of my formal report. I learned the importance of not using imperative verbs when providing feedback and I employed this knowledge when giving my partner a peer review. I tackled my report from a systematic point of view, and this helped me write in a more meaningful way. I look forward to continually using these techniques in future writings.
Formal Report Draft: Feasibility Analysis of Increasing the Student Transportation Methods on UBC Vancouver Campus_Draft 1