Unit Three Reflection Blog

I really enjoyed unit three of ENGL 301, but did find it to be the most challenging unit of them all to date. Attempting to get a decent amount of survey responses and interview responses from the very busy healthcare staff at the care facility was very difficult. I believe I accumulated enough to create a good formal report, but I also believe that I underestimated the difficult nature of getting people to open up about their jobs. This was a challenging task. Nurses specifically were not keen on helping me with my project, but healthcare aides and recreation therapy staff were more interested, which ended up being where I received the bulk of my info. I am very thankful they were willing to help. My findings were exactly what I had originally hypothesized – that inadequate pay and challenging patients with complex care needs would be two of the main reasons for the staffing shortage. The highlight of the research process was a healthcare aide providing a wonderful solution for me, without me even prompting her. She suggested that the care facility hire students currently enrolled in healthcare aide programs and nursing school to volunteer as healthcare support staff. This would be beneficial for the care facility, as there would be no added financial burden but they would receive healthcare support, and would also be beneficial to the students as they could gain valuable hands-on experience in their field. Organizing and writing my formal report was interesting as I have never created such a document in my academic career. Through the process of peer reviewing Thomas’s formal report draft, I learned from Thomas how to balance graphs and charts with the appropriate amount of text, therefore making it easily readable but also informative for the reader. I always enjoy the process of peer reviewing as it allows me to be open to different writing styles. Overall, this unit was challenging but beneficial to my learning and my growth as a writer.

First draft: vergouwen formal report draft

Unit 2 Reflections Blog

I really enjoyed the exercises in unit 2 as I found them to be very helpful for my current and future professional career. Although I already had a LinkedIn profile before this class, the exercise of findings profile tips and tricks and having a classmate peer review my profile was very valuable. I enjoy using LinkedIn as a social media network for my career, and I am glad that I had the chance to improve on it in this class.

As for the formal report, I am very pleased with the progress of my report thus far. I chose a topic that I am very passionate about – healthcare and long-term care facilities supporting seniors with dementia. Working at the Glenmore Lodge Care Community is something I am passionate about, and I am eager to work on my formal report further, as I believe I am targeting a very important issue in the lack of staff. I believe that I have created a set of interview and survey questions that are respectful and non-accusatory, but I am a bit nervous to administer the surveys to the healthcare staff (healthcare aides, RNs, LPNs, therapeutic recreation staff) as I worry that they may not feel comfortable sharing their thoughts regarding the staffing issue (despite my surveys being anonymous). I hope that the type of questions I asked were neutral enough that they can take assurance in the fact that I am not accusing anyone of anything, I simply want to gather their opinions towards whether or not they feel there is a lack of healthcare staff at their workplace (and why).

While peer reviewing Jobina’s formal report proposal, I actually gained some insight into how to write in a more concise manner. Jobina is good at using professional and appropriate language that gets the point across without over-writing, which I struggle with. By noticing this in her work, I was able to be more diligent in my own work. I struggle with run-on sentences and occasionally repeating myself, so I worked hard to eliminate these issues in my own report. Peer reviewing is a valuable resource and I am grateful that I have such a great group to work with. Each of my classmates in my group who has peer-reviewed my assignments has worked so hard and put in so much effort into giving me great tips that are helpful and genuinely improve my work. I appreciate the act of peer review as I understand that it takes time, but it has proven to be very useful in this class. I also enjoy the act of peer reviewing as it has allowed me to become familiar with different writing styles and language choices, and has taught me how to give constructive criticism (which is a great skill to have in the workplace).

Overall, I found this unit to be interesting and provide stimulating exercises and assignments that have taught me skills I will use in my current and future professional career. It has been difficult in the sense that I have second-guessed myself a few times along the way, specifically in the formal report aspect, but I am looking forward to continuing to grow in my writing and produce a well-thought out and put together formal report concerning a cause I care deeply about.

My Revised Report Proposal: Vergouwen Revised Report Proposal

Jobina’s Peer Review of my Report Proposal: https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-99a-2019wa/2019/10/10/lesson-2-1-peer-review-of-formal-report-proposal/

I found this assignment very interesting and actually quite a bit more challenging than I originally anticipated. I think the assignment was most difficult for me because I have never had to write for a variety of audiences like this assignment required me to. I actually found it challenging describing a term that is unfamiliar to others, as I was unsure what is a good balance of describing my term yet not being too complicated with it, but also not patronizing the reader by oversimplifying my explanation. I chose to write about a term that is used in the renewable energy business, which my classmates were probably unfamiliar with as I was until I began my professional career in renewables. I thought that, even though most of my group would be unaware of the term, it does relate to a concept everyone is familiar with, that being sustainability. My main goal with this assignment was to educate my group members on something I find very important, especially with the current status of the world’s climate. Climate change is a very real issue, and with cogeneration being such a great resource to help reduce greenhouse gases, I thought that it was very important to share this term and this concept with my team.

To explain my term, I chose to use history, visuals and examples/FAQs as expanded definition techniques as I felt that they were the best option for explaining my definition clearly and efficiently. My peer review partner was Thomas, and I found it super interesting having a peer review partner as I have not done this process in any of my other university classes. It was super helpful having someone go over my writing, as he caught things that I would have never found. I am very passionate about cogeneration and renewable energy and therefore went quite in depth in my assignment with the economics and the details, and Thomas helped show me that I may have indeed gone a bit too in depth. I described the economics side of cogeneration too much, and dove too far into the details behind the monetary aspect, so this was my main change that I made in my edited assignment thanks to Thomas. I reworked the economics paragraph in my assignment and took out the portions where I overexplained. Thomas also mentioned in his peer review that the order of my paragraphs was a bit confusing in terms of explanation and I completely agreed with him and made a change to the order of some of my sentences which in turn greatly improved the flow and understanding of my term. I really think that having my work peer reviewed was super helpful and beneficial to my assignment.

I thoroughly enjoyed peer reviewing Thomas’s work. Editing is my favourite part of the writing process as I am a bit of a perfectionist so I was pleased that I got the opportunity to help Thomas improve his already impressive assignment. I did find it difficult to gage how picky to be, and I was unsure at times if I was overwhelming my partner with my tips or if I was actually helping. I think peer editing is challenging in this sense because there is a fine line between helping your partner in a kind fashion, and coming across as “better than”. I hope that Thomas found my comments on his work helpful as I actually found the process of peer reviewing very beneficial to my own writing. It is easy to become stagnant in your own personal writing style, so getting the chance to read others’ work was helpful as I was introduced to different writing styles and formats.

Overall, I am pleased we had this opportunity to peer review others’ work, and have our work peer reviewed as well. This was a very helpful exercise for me as I don’t usually have others read my work, and in the future I will definitely incorporate this more into my writing even if it is not required. Having another person’s perspective and opinion is so beneficial to writing and I found the process very interesting. I am happy to have had the opportunity to reflect on my own work with the constructive criticism from Thomas, and improve this assignment.

Attached is my revised assignment: 1.3 Edited Three Definitions Vergouwen

The link to Thomas’s peer review of my assignment: https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-99a-2019wa/2019/09/26/lesson-1-3-peer-review-of-cogeneration-by-amy-vergouwen/

Jobina

From: Amy Vergouwen

To: Jobina Tamminga

Hello Jobina,

To: connor.runnalls@gmail.com

From: amy.vergouwen@alumni.ubc.ca

Date: September 17, 2019

Subject: ENGL 301 Writing Team Inquiry

Attachments: 301 Amy Vergouwen Application Letter

Dear Connor,

After reviewing your application letter, I am interested in working together and creating a professional writing team for ENGL 301.

I am very impressed with the experience you have in a variety of different positions and academic pursuits. I too am a psychology major! I am in my 4th year at the Okanagan campus. If we are in a group together for this class, I would love to chat with you about psych and learn about your favourite branches of it. I enjoyed reading about the skills that you have developed, from Lululemon to the baseball team, and I believe that our skills would complement each other’s well. I appreciate that you value time management and punctuality as I think those are crucial to succeeding in group work.

I have attached my letter of application to this email for your reference. If you would, please take a look through it and let me know if you agree that we would work well together on a writing team.

Thank you for your consideration and I look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

Amy Vergouwen

To: tom.howey@alumni.ubc.ca

From: amy.vergouwen@alumni.ubc.ca

Date: September 16, 2019

Subject: ENGL 301 Writing Team Inquiry

Attachments: 301 Amy Vergouwen Application Letter

Dear Tom,

After reviewing your application letter, I am interested in working together and creating a professional writing team for ENGL 301.

I am very impressed with the experience you have in a variety of different jobs and academic pursuits. From engineering courses to persuasive writing to presenting at the MURC, I can see how you would develop a wide range of skills and strengths. I believe we share a similarity in that we have both written in a variety of different contexts and have the ability to adapt our writing styles accordingly. I do not have much experience in slideshows presentations, so with your ability to add visuals to a presentation, I might be able to add my experience of previous technical writing at my renewable energy sales job. I think that our skills would complement each other’s and that we would work well together.

I have attached my letter of application to this email for your reference. If you would, please take a look through it let me know if you agree that we would work well together on a writing team.

Thank you for your consideration and I look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

Amy Vergouwen

To: jobina.tamminga@gmail.com

From: amy.vergouwen@alumni.ubc.ca

Date: September 16, 2019

Subject: ENGL 301 Writing Team Inquiry

Attachments: 301 Amy Vergouwen Application Letter

Dear Jobina,

After reviewing your application letter, I am interested in working together and creating a professional writing team for ENGL 301.

I am very impressed with the experience you have in a variety of different jobs and academic pursuits. You seem to have great writing skills (as noted by your experience and by your quality of application letter) and I find your computer science and biology background very interesting. We are very alike in our work habits and writing skills, as we both would describe ourselves as “keeners” and we both work best when our work is completed early to eliminate unnecessary stress. Because of our similarities, I think we would really complement each other as writing partners for ENGL 301.

I have attached my letter of application to this email for your reference. If you would, please take a look through it let me know if you agree that we would work well together on a writing team.

Thank you for your consideration and I look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

Amy Vergouwen

MEMORANDUM

To:          Dr. Erika Paterson, Instructor, ENGL 301
From:     Amy Vergouwen, Student, ENGL 301
Date:       September 16, 2019
Subject:  Letter of Application Posted

As per your request, I have posted my letter of application addressed to my fellow ENGL 301 classmates to my blog.

My letter of application includes the following:

• My work/volunteer experience and interests within the professional fields of healthcare and renewable energy
• My academic achievements of scholarships and awards
• My strengths and weaknesses in writing
• My work habits and how I prefer to accomplish tasks and assignments
• My learning philosophy of collaboration and teamwork

I am looking forward to hearing from my ENGL 301 classmates in regards to forming a writing team. If you require anything else from me please don’t hesitate to let me know.

Thank you.

301 Amy Vergouwen Application Letter

1873 Country Club Drive

Kelowna, BC V1V 2W6

amy.vergouwen@alumni.ubc.ca

September 15, 2019

ENGL 301 99A: Technical Writing
University of British Columbia
1873 East Mall
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1

Dear ENGL 301 classmates,

I am writing to you to apply for a position to your ENGL 301 writing team. I am looking forward to finding other members with similar interests and writing routines to me. In this letter I hope to highlight my professional interests, achievements and work habits that would make me a good candidate for your writing team.

I have a few professional interests. Currently while attending my final year of university I volunteer 3 days a week at a long term care facility on the rec-therapy team. I have always been interested in healthcare, and combined with my degree of psychology, working at a care facility supporting individuals with dementia is a great route for me. I enjoy forming bonds with the individuals in our care, and I appreciate the aspect of supporting those who need it. In a bit of a different lens, I have another professional interest which is the world of sustainable energy, and I had the opportunity to work at a company involved with this this past summer. I worked in inside sales as a financial analyst assistant, mainly doing ROI analysis for combined heat & power units that the company sells to large agriculture corporations and farms to reduce carbon emissions. I plan to continue working at my job in renewable energy after I graduate, as I really enjoy working in a sales atmosphere and enjoy the good work the company is doing to reduce the impacts of climate change. My ideal plan would be to work in renewables and volunteer at a care facility so that I am able to combine both of my professional interests.

Going into university I received the Alexander Rutherford scholarship which paid for a great deal of my first year tuition. I have also received many music awards for jazz, symphonic and pit band throughout my education.

My main writing strength is my ability to state a point and then expand on it very well. I am good at expanding on details and providing comprehensive explanations and descriptions of writing points. My main weakness comes from my ability to expand on points well and use a good amount of detail; I have been known to repeat points at times, or carry a point for too long. This is difficult for me as I like to provide as much detail as possible, but I am working on keeping my points as concise as necessary. As per my working habits, I am a hard worker and a perfectionist in my writing. I like to edit and re-edit my work many times and prefer to have it finished a few days before the due date in order to have time to fix and reconstruct points if necessary. I do not work well if I have to cram an assignment in at the last minute as I get quite stressed and prefer to not work under a lot of pressure due to time constraints.

I really believe in collaboration and working in a team environment as I think it fosters creativity and cooperation, and allows for many viewpoints to be considered.

Thank you for your time and consideration, and I really look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

Amy Vergouwen

301 Amy Vergouwen Application Letter