Dear ENGL 301 Students:

We have completed Unit 3. This unit was another process of learning how to fix errors, be more positive and focus on being objective. Frankly, this unit was the most difficult for me in nailing the right tone, right content and perfect formatting. I still have to work on commas, some occasional wordiness, and omitting excess imperatives. Unfortunately, I have experienced Wi-Fi and mobile data issues for the last week and a half. Despite some difficulties, I still completed my work. In this reflection, I will be focusing on the writing process for my formal report draft and peer review.

Formal Report Draft Writing Process

For the first draft, I managed to get a barebone report. The first focus was structuring my report and using a template for the title page. It has been a couple of years since I created a business proposal. Because of that experience, I knew somewhat how to make a long report like this. It was still a little bit different as this report is about a problem that we want to improve. The main struggle was getting survey responses and gathering data from representatives. Out of the three I attempted to contact, only Mr. Cole Evans could respond to my request for a call, despite his busy schedule. He told me that some student clubs and associations take a break during the summer. This is why they may not respond quickly or at all.

After completing the main parts, I began adding to the peer review research section because it is more complicated to write about quantitative data than qualitative data. It took a long time to find the relevant research articles that support the primary hypotheses I listed in the report. I still have to tweak that section and add more sufficient data for the mental well-being part.

Again, it was a bit difficult finding relevant research articles that support this section. Plus, I want to have enough support for the hypothesis, but I do not want to be wordy or have too much information either. Balancing this out will be the focus of my final draft. Another goal for my final draft is to update the data/references, add more relevant figures, write a good abstract and letter of transmittal, and double-check the tone and objectivity.

Peer Review Process

While I was peer-reviewing my peer’s report, it gave me a third-person perspective of how others write. I would compare their report to mine. This opportunity even allowed me to edit my report when I saw something was too different. In ways, looking at someone’s work aids my improvement. Being able to peer review helps my writing process immensely. It is a very different experience than previous writing classes, where the teacher or the TAs are the prominent onlookers for giving feedback. In this course, our peers are also objective viewers and editors. We take on a more active role, and I appreciate it for my writing skills.

After reading the peer review from my peer, I also realize how easy it is to miss or overlook minor details. Luckily, there were no significant errors or grammar issues. Overall, I felt a bit glad that I did not need to improve every single thing. It tells me that my writing skills have been progressing since the beginning of the term. Additionally, I feel a difference genuinely. Even when I am writing casually outside of classes, I try to stay aware of my writing.

I know that “habits die hard,” and it is difficult to quit them. I told myself that I have to try writing well in all contexts to have habits stick. After seeing the feedback, I also immediately went into the report and edited a lot of it. If I do not fix errors right away, I might overlook them and forget.

Overall, my writing progressed immensely. Peer reviews help in objectivity and receiving feedback from others in your team. This process also helps form connections with your peers. I hope always to write excellent reports that promote a good YOU attitude in the future.

Let’s wake up to another day of writing and learning! 

Dear ENGL 301 Team,

After another successfully completed unit, I write this Unit Two Reflection blog post. I reread my Unit One Reflection and realized that I have experienced growth in the writing process. This reflection will explain and clarify my experience with LinkedIn, the Formal Report Proposal assignment, and the peer reviews.

Writing Process

After completing these last few assignments and receiving feedback, I realized how much I have learned about my own writing and my peers’. Frankly, it was great to learn a few facts about networking on LinkedIn. I already have a LinkedIn, but I never really researched networking specifically. I will edit my own profile and adjust it to improve my image and exposure to other users. I have been making more comments on articles lately. I also constantly adjust my work experiences and interests to reflect a genuine, authentic personality.

While I was brainstorming for my formal report proposal outline and memos, I was afraid to be wordy. It is one of the main errors I make in writing. This was also a concern I stated in my Unit One reflection. Regarding a valid problem, I had one prepared all this time. It is as if it came “handy” to be addressed in a course I am taking. I always felt like there is a lack of opportunities for psychology majors in general. Therefore, finding a problem and solutions was not difficult. However, I had thoughts about whether it will be feasible. Additionally, I struggled a little with finding a proper audience because the scope of making changes was more than one society. After Dr. Paterson’s feedback and the peer review, I finetune the proposal’s audience excellently. Lastly, I feel satisfied with the proposal’s progress. I created a professionally written survey with an ethical introduction for the first time. I fixed the audience and the wordiness of my initial memo. I also will remember to title my attachments more properly next time. I feel like I have enough guidance from Dr. Paterson and my peers. My writing is shifting from extremely unclear and messy to less wordy and more concise.

Peer Review Process

As I read my peers’ work, I learn more about writing styles. Everyone has a certain tone or writing style they have. Lately, I find that I can easily pinpoint errors in my peer’s writing more than I used to. I also see strengths and areas they can improve more readily. Thanks to the feedback I received, I have seen changes in my initial writing in any type of writing I do. Grammarly detects fewer grammatical errors. I can immediately find errors in my own writing before Grammarly tells me. I can fix my own wordiness quickly. The peer-review process, alongside Dr. Paterson’s comments, has helped me reduce wordiness, improve attachment titling, reduce imperatives and avoid overutilizing pronouns. I also avoid negative tones. Peer reviewing allows me to see frequently made mistakes from a classmate’s perspective. I also improved my peer review organization. Overall, I have learned a lot about others’ writing and my own incredibly in this unit.

Revisions

I have created an excellent formal report outline. Also, I have revised my formal report proposal according to the peer review done by Claire Flater. The main concerns were wordiness and fine-tuning the needs/problem. In my revision, I have fixed the wordiness and problem. Now, the problem focuses on the lack of job and networking opportunities for psychology students at UBCV.

Revisions and outline can be found here:

1. 301 Amela Sejdic Revised Formal Report Proposal
2. 301 Amela Sejdic Formal Report Outline
3. Claire Flater’s Peer Review of Amela Sejdic’s Formal Report Proposal.

Hello ENGL 301 Team!

After we finished off Unit One in ENGL 301, we wrote a reflection post on our blog after revising our definition assignment according to a team member’s peer review. In this reflection, I will be linking you to my revised definition and peer review at the bottom and describing my writing and peer review process.

Writing Process

Frankly, I have done similar assignments before in previous courses. However, they were based on different topics. This time, I chose a term relevant to my major (Psychology), so I had a background on the term. Secondly, I have research experience, so I was able to find relevant sources to solidify my definitions and provide a suitable figure. However, the hurdles I faced were mostly accustoming to APA 7th edition. It is a relatively new edition, and I sometimes get confused about whether I should use 6th or 7th. I use Grammarly to guide my writing process since it helps with tone and sticking to formality.

Peer Review

It was enjoyable to look over someone else’s work to gain proofreading experience and learn about other people’s writing styles. I reviewed MacAylee, and I noticed that her term was from law psychology–a course that I completed in the second year of studies at SFU. Therefore, her material was more difficult to understand if we do not know anything about law or criminal psychology. However, I believe she did a great job with detailed explanations. I also found it quite easy to overlook little details when writing or doing assignments, such as missing to provide a visual or citing certain things. It is a common mistake to forget certain formatting or punctuation in the References/Works Cited list, which I saw with my work, the peer review and other teammates’ as well. This process helped me learn where I could also improve in terms of wordiness and clarity.

Takeaway

I will answer the questions: “What did you learn during this process? What did you learn about yourself and your writing in this exercise and in Unit One?” After this exercise and previous assignments, I realized that I make better choices in my writing assignments. I attempt to be concise and clear. However, I noticed that I can still be quite wordy. I also do not realize it when I make mistakes with prepositions such as “for, about, to, on,” et cetera. I overlook it completely until I turn on Grammarly. Therefore, I have to reread my work repeatedly until I find my own grammatical mistakes and fix them immediately. Additionally, I noticed that I have more motivation to write when it is more interactive and team-based. I also like the feedback sheets we receive because there are more chances to improve our writing and grades than just 4 large assignments with huge weights and not a lot of time to improve little by little. After this assignment and unit, I will write better definitions that are less wordy and help non-technical and semi-technical audiences understand a term easily. Lastly, my experience in self-editing and peer-reviewing has expanded and allowed me to also look at my own writing differently.

Here are the links to the revision and the peer review of my assignment:

1. Revised Definition (Defining “Altruism”)
2. Peer Review by MacAylee Heide

Just like how flowers bloom into something beautiful, let’s watch how my writing also blooms into something better.