Process of researching for a formal report draft
In the third unit of the ENGL 301 course, researching the published articles, books or websites to support the importance of “recommendations” for the specific readers was assigned. One of the hardest parts of this assignment was finding the reliable and strong sources. For websites, it is easy to find strong sources but difficult to determine which sites are reliable. Published articles and books are surely reliable, but it is hard to determine which articles and books strongly support my “recommendations.” On the other hand, one of the great things of researching for the formal report is to use a key technique I found during researching how to create LinkedIn profile; collecting all information and picking up the most useful one. Different websites or articles give various details so that the technique helps me organize key points faster. Overall, this task told me the importance of finding reliable and strong sources to support the formal report by using the technique.
Process of organizing and writing a formal report draft
The assignment of organizing and writing a formal report draft occupied most of the work in the third unit in the ENGL 301 course. To organize a formal report, the most difficult part was how to order the subheadings of the data section in order to support and connect strongly with the main point of the report. The examples in the textbook were helpful for figuring it out. The formal report draft being written, some difficulties confronted me. Firstly, since the topic was negative, it was very hard not to use negative words. Secondly, it was difficult to decide how and where to use and emphasize “You Attitude.” Thirdly, the obtained data was not stronger than I had expected. Though these difficulties remained, I overcame them and wrote a stronger formal report by using feedback from my peer, some examples online in the textbook, and my creativity. Overall, organizing and writing a formal report are surely important tasks in order to improve my writing and creativity.
Peer review process
I had a chance to read a team member’s, Ryan’s, formal report draft, “Opportunities from Sustainable and Transparent Ingredient Sourcing.” His formal report draft was very interesting and concise with all requirements. In addition, his creativity of constructing the report and containing reliable data inspired me a lot. In fact, I was able to understand how to support the “Recommendations” strongly using the obtained data and published articles. On the other hand, providing critical feedbacks and finding lacks in his report also improved my own work. For example, being picky, I found the mistakes for both of us and specific suggestions of what to clarify and how to change the style or designs in his formal report draft. These findings also improved my writing skills and creativity of expressing great images of the report. Constructive feedback from Ryan was very valuable and helpful to develop my work. Specially, he gave me some suggestions to avoid using negative words, which I appreciated since I was struggling with writing the report positively. Overall, the peer review process provided me how to support important points from the raw data and helped me find what was missing in my writing skills and creative thinking.
The following is the link of the assignment:
301 Ayaka Matsuno Revised Peer Review of a Formal Report Draft