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After finishing all the assignments by the end of the term, when I look back now, I have to say it is a really intensive course, we have two assignments to finish each week and many readings to finish before starting the assignment, this course is more intensive than I expected at first, but I do learn a lot, such as how to write a memo, give feedbacks, generate report proposal and formal report, and writing-with-YOU-attitude. I like it practicality of the course content!

Strength: During many years of my student life, I found myself always fascinated by new knowledge and concepts. In ENGL 301, I am really interested in learning so much knowledge in technical writing which not only enable me to achieve higher writing standards but also lay the foundation for my future career development. Also, I am really glad that now I can write more constructive feedback for my peers.  I was not comfortable giving others advice but gradually I find it very interesting and I enjoy that my suggestions can be helpful to someone else. Besides, I was able to perform creatively in some work yet still in an intuitive way, such as when I was writing the complaint letter, it feels very intuitive but yet I still corporate some skills learned on readings, which is really satisfying to apply knowledge on the book to real life. Lastly, I found myself enjoying the self-paced learning method as I am good at time management, which largely increases my study efficiency. 

Weakness: Even though I enjoy learning new material but I had difficulties in finishing assignments with excellence, my marks were often deducted due to grammar or typo mistakes, even though I double-check my work I still miss some mistakes which are caused by my weak English grammar knowledge. Besides, I am too fixated on assignments and do not want to turn them in until the last minute even though I finished them early, I think that is because I am not confident in my work, so I feel reluctant to turn it in early. Another weakness in technical writing that I have is that I used to write a research paper, and turned out my formal report looks a bit like a research paper instead of a report, which is not ideal. I was also having some trouble with writing-with-you-attitude, I find it hard to situate myself in one side of the story thus I always gave a neutral tone when I was writing, but I am aware that is not what we should do in technical writing.

Overall, I find myself more comfortable writing in a professional style with more skills involved, also, which is also what I want to achieve when I joined the course.

I choose my web folio reader to be students who are considering taking ENGL 301 or other students who want to learn some technical writing skills because I feel like the documents here are useful for them, I hope my web folio can be helpful. Also, because I am neither going into the job market nor applying to graduate school, this web folio is more suitable for my situation. The reason I chose the UBC blog platform is that I think most of my readers would be UBC students so this platform is more accessible to them.

While organizing some work done this semester for the web folio I feel a sense of achievement, from the first assignment of the introduction of oneself to the last assignment, each assignment marked a new step in learning technical writing which is fruitful. Also, this course requires much teamwork and provides students a chance to learn from others’ work, I am really grateful to my teammates for the efforts they have put in reviewing my writings, I have learned so much from them.

To be honest, creating a web folio is a bit intimidating because I am never a designer or a good organizer, but I like that instructor gave us instructions on the required pages which gives me a clue to start with. I do not like web pages that have too many colors or graphics, because I think that would take away the importance of the content so I keep them minimal. Also, I think web pages that contain too many words are a bit overwhelmed for the reader so each of my pages is not sentences condensed, and I shortened each hyperlink to make it look better.

I must say I did not enjoy organizing the web folio on the UBC blog platform. Mainly because I find it a bit challenging to use while creating a customized page, as the format is limited and there were not many resources on the UBC blog to use. Also, the overall user interface of the blog is really confusing, I feel like I am spending more time learning to use the website than actually organizing my works. I won’t recommend anyone else to use this website for displaying their works, I think there is definitely a better choice than using this website.

Overall, though it is not an easy job to start, once I pieced each part out, it is more interesting to work on. This would be my last work for ENGL 301 99c, hope this web folio can be helpful.

Process of researching, organizing, and writing formal report draft:

Most of my research for the formal report is done when I was brainstorming for the proposal, I find that extremely helpful when I am writing the draft that I do not have to start from scratch. I really enjoyed organizing everything together, because I get a chance to see what is missing and then continue to work on the missing parts.  I think that is all because I started early for the research, it is also the first time that I realize research or report shouldn’t be one week’s work, it should be progress weekly so that we can keep looking back and constantly editing. I think one of the biggest challenges for me while generating the draft is the data part. As I used surveys as my primary data source, I am a bit struggling to draw a solid conclusion from the survey result due to the limited quantity of the result received, also, now I look back on my survey, I feel like there are some important questions missing too, but for those missing questions, I used my secondary resources to address them, which is also fine but ideally they should be from the surveys. 

The task of peer review:

I enjoyed reading my teammate Carol’s work a lot because I really relate to the topic of her report, which gives me a special perspective when reviewing her report. While reading her report, I find she did good work on presenting her attitude in her report, which I fail to do in my draft, I was a bit neutral, but now I think a bit of attitude would be better in presenting the urgency to solve the issue that I brought up. Also, I find Carol’s draft is mostly composed of results from the survey which makes the report more convincing, however, I cited many past research and journals and the survey analysis part is underweight. I learn it is important to achieve a balance between the primary data source and secondary data source in order to make the report more convincing. 

link to my formal report draft: formal report draft

• Reflection on LinkedIn research: This assignment really gave me a chance to push myself to research good practices on LinkedIn, my page was pretty shady and I barely use LinkedIn for networking or outreaching mostly because I have no idea how. But after the research, I feel more confident to operate my LinkedIn page and have a lot of ideas to implement on my page. 

• Reflection on report proposal and outline: I have never written a formal report before, I did many research studies on gender issues from my previous degree, so the idea of bridging the gender gap in the computer science program at UBC comes naturally to me since it is literally the first questions come to my mind when I was in my first CS class, I was a bit disappointed at the gender ratio in CS course. But, I have to admit, it is a really big topic to address, so research on the analysis of gender disparity, past measurements, and the survey to students are all significantly important in order to make my report strong and convincing. With the outline produced, now I am getting more clues about how this report is going to be generated, I am excited!

• Reflection on the peer review process: my teammate Han Li did a good job on selecting the report topic, I always thought the report or paper should be about something big and intricate, but her topic is down to earth and imperative, this gave me many thoughts on topic selection. Also, my teammates are very detail-oriented and their expressions are always clear without redundancy, I learned a lot of neat expressions through reading their posts. I think peer review is a great chance for me to take myself out of my comfort zone and see other options. I enjoyed it more than I expected.

Link to revised formal report proposal: https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-99c-2021wc/2022/02/15/formal-report-proposal-improving-gender-disparity-in-department-of-computer-science-in-ubc/

Link to peer review: https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-99c-2021wc/2022/02/18/peer-review-of-research-proposal/

Reflection:

• Writing the first draft of definition: In this assignment, we are instructed to write a definition for a technical term from our fields of study, and we have to compose a situation, a parenthetical definition, a sentence definition, and four expansion strategies including one visual with more than three outside references in either APA and MLA style. It was quite challenging for me even though I have done similar tasks when I was at work, but it was all informal and my audiences are also in the same professions as me. But I find the reading extremely helpful, it helped me learn different ways to explain a technical term, we can use a parenthetical definition which means we can find a synonym for the term, sentence definition which involves composing a sentence to describe the term and it features. Most importantly, the strategies for expansion had enriched capacity when explaining a term. For example, we can tell the history of word origin of the term to further clarify the meaning, besides, negation is also another useful strategy, it indicates what the words do not mean which can clarify some ambiguity the audience might receive, also we can always provide examples which is a powerful way to explicitly perceive the meaning of the term. Lastly, when composing a definition for a complicated term, we should always use multiple expansion methods to give our audience a more holistic view of the word.

• Peer Review Process: I was given the chance to review my teammate’s work and offer suggestions, accordingly, I reviewed the work from my teammate Lucy Li. Reading Lucy’s work, further helped me deepen my understanding of strategies in definition expansion, especially for the use of negation and visual, and also the formate when including a figure in a document. I liked her visual presentation, it was clear and explicit, her overall document is well-formatted which is easy to follow. Besides, I learned parts analysis through lucy’s work as well, she did a good job on how to explain the term by illustrating different parts that constitute it and also making it concise. Meanwhile, I found Lucy made a few mistakes as I was going through her work, such as lack of conclusion, repetitiveness in writing, and also ambiguity in explanation, I started to reflect them on my writings, as they are subtle errors that can easily make when writing definition. 

• Editing Process: I enjoy the editing process more than I expected. I appreciate the suggestions lucy offered, as she identified a few errors in my writing, such as lack of conclusion and situation, format and style issue, and so on. I also learned good formatting, and how to illustrate visual presentation concisely through reading her work. So, with knowing the mistakes I made, I can improve my writing with a more holistic intention. I also appreciate all the positive comments which are reassuring for me in terms of some techniques I used.

Revised defintion:https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-99c-2021wc/2022/02/08/revised-definition-assignment-2/

Peer review:https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-99c-2021wc/2022/02/05/peer-review-on-definition-of-the-back-of-house/

To: Lucy Li

From: Anna Li

Date: January 23, 2021

Subject: Re: ENGL 301 – Writing Team Invitation

Dear Lucy,

I am pleased to formally accept your invitation to join your professional writing team, and thank you for the opportunity!

I am impressed by your motives for learning computer science, the fact is I had a similar experience when I first decided to join the tech industry, so I can resonate with you! Besides, I appreciate your professional experience in the hospitality industry which to my knowledge is a very tough industry, I believe anyone who manages to succeed in that field can bring their experience to contribute to other aspects. Furthermore, I believe our strengths and weaknesses will be complementary to each other, I appreciate your attention to detail and perseverance in writing, that is what I wanted to achieve when it comes to writing.

I cannot wait to meet you in the future, and I believe we will make a great team together, let’s stay in touch!

Cheer,

Anna

To: Carol Li

From: Anna Li

Date: January 23, 2021

Subject: Re: ENGL 301 – Writing Team Invitation

Dear Carol,

I am pleased to formally accept your invitation to join your professional writing team, and thank you for the opportunity!

I am so glad to find that we have so many similarities. Another work experience that I did not mention in my application letter is that I also worked as a freelance translator, what are the odds! after reading your bio, I admire your courage to step into the computer science field without any previous experience, and just as you said it is never too late to start. That is inspiring for women like me who are pursuing in the tech industry.

I cannot wait to meet you in the future, and I believe we will make a great team together, let’s stay in touch!

Cheer,

Anna

To: Han Li

From: Anna Li

Date: January 23, 2022

Subject: ENGL 301 Writing Team Invitation

Dear Han,

Thank you for your application to join a professional writing team. I was impressed with your work experience and academic background, thus, I would like to formally invite you to join my professional writing team for this term. I believe we can make a great team together!

While reading your application, I found your writing skills vital to our teamwork in terms of the capacity to make analysis reports, conduct extensive research and professionally perform tasks. That is exactly what I am looking for in a teammate, I would be glad if you are willing to contribute to our team! Also, as we are all in the BCS program, I believe with the same academic experience and future career goals, we can support and help each other throughout the time.

I have attached my application letter to this email so that you can get to know about me to make a sound decision. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns, if you intend on accepting my invitation in joining my professional writing team, please email me at annaleee@students.ubc.ca. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Best,

Anna

enclosure: 301 Anna Li Application Letter

1234 ketcheson Road 

Vancouver, BC V8K 0L3

 January 20, 2021

ENGL 301 99C Class

UBC Department of English

1837 E Mall #397

Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1

Subject: Application to Join Your Professional Writing Team

Dear ENGL 301 colleagues,

My name is Anna, one of the members of the ENGL301 99C cohort. As a third-year student in a computer science program, however, with abundant experience in professional writing, please consider my application!

Before I got admitted into the BCS program at UBC. I finished my master’s degree in education at the University of Toronto three years ago, and after that, I have been working in NGO that serves vulnerable groups in Toronto. I was a community organizer working on different projects that relates to social issues, I have worked on over 6 different projects (community-based projects or research projects) with different stakeholders, including government officers, private funders, community members, and so on. The reason that I am with BCS is that I want to bring my knowledge gained from BCS back to my advocacy work. 

In terms of academic performance, I had a bachelor’s degree in Arts, with an average score of 91 or so. With this result, I was admitted to a master’s program at the University of Toronto, and finished the program with 80% of my courses in A or A+.

I am very critical in terms of the revision of an article, and my writing is usually pretty structured and organized. However, I have to admit that I tend to overlook grammar, and have a limited vocabulary repository.

In terms of work style, I am conscientious in teamwork, and I like to take initiative on projects and assignments, also I am very productive. I learn through practice, discussion and I enjoy teamwork quite much. I also like to do self-reflection for each stage learning to help to reinforce my knowledge and I believe when helping others with their questions I can improve too, so I like to help my classmates as well.

Feel free to contact me at annaleee@students.cs.ubc.ca, I look forward to hearing from you!

Sincerely, 

Anna Li

301 Anna Li Application Letter

MEMORANDUM

To:             Dr. Erika Paterson, instructor of English 301 99C

From:       Anna Li, English 301 99C Student

Date:        January 20th, 2022

Subject:  Summary of Letter of Application

As instructed on the assignment, my letter of application has been posted on my student blog under the BlOG section.

My application letter includes:

• My professional interest along with my previous professional background and academic achievements
• Strengths and weaknesses of my writing skills and work habits
• My learning philosophy

Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions! Thank you!

Enclosure:301 Anna Li Application Letter