Introduction
This unit was overall very rewarding. I was able to see how my writing developed to include what I learned from the first 3 units and my peers. While reviewing my reflection, I am able to understand the entire process of writing my formal report and what it takes to refine a piece of writing. This overall gave me a sense of accomplishment and taught me the importance of reflecting on my personal work.
Researching for the Formal Report
The research process was quite long and arduous as I had to include background research, an observational study, interviews, and surveys in my report. In terms of background research, it was very doable as I had previously researched related topics. However, when it came to the primary research, there were a lot of challenges due to current COVID restrictions in the American club. I was unable to go into the gym at certain times since there was a capacity restriction, so my findings may not accurately reflect the gym environment when there are no restrictions. Further, I was only able to find 2 interviewees and a few participants for my survey due to the huge decrease in members at the club due to the pandemic. Despite these challenges, I completed my research. Although there are a lot of limitations, I was able to get data that reflected what club members generally thought about accessibility in the fitness space.
Organizing the Formal Report
When organizing my final report, it was initially difficult integrating all my primary research with the existing literature. I believe I structured it more like an essay due to certain points about ethical issues and design thinking I had to define and clarify. With the help of the textbook, I was able to create a logical flow of my report, leading from existing research to primary research to implications and recommendations. However, there is work to be done improving the structure and flow of my report to cater to the intended audience.
Writing the Formal Report
With the outline and research finished, writing the final report was not very difficult. Thanks to the outline and proposal I created prior to starting my research, I was able to integrate all the points I needed in 15 pages. On the other hand, it was a challenge to write my report based on the intended audience, rather than writing a descriptive paper to a general audience like in my previous classes. Hopefully, through this peer review process, I will be able to gain some insights from my peer’s works and revise my report accordingly.
Reviewing My Peer’s Formal Report
My peer did an excellent job writing his final report. I was very impressed by the overall structure, conciseness, and clarity of his report. There were only a few changes I suggested that I found helpful in strengthening the argument in my report, such as providing interpretations of graphs and figures and clearly stating the negative effects of the problem. Performing this peer review made me realize certain changes I should make to my report: reorganizing certain sections, removing repetitions, including more illustrations and tables, and providing clear recommendations for further action in my conclusion.
Conclusion
Overall, the process of researching, organizing, writing, and peer-reviewing the final report allowed me to understand feasibility reports on a deeper level. I was able to recognize what I did well and what I was lacking in my report, steering me in the right direction to revise my draft.
301 Ashley Yuan Formal Report Draft
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