In Unit Three of ENGL 301, the main focus was on researching, organizing and writing the formal report draft. Also, I peer reviewed my teammate’s draft about improving the availability of affordable housing for UBC students.

I felt that writing the report draft was not too difficult because the brainstorming work was done in the report proposal. I expanded upon the work done in my proposal and added more details to relate ideas together. However, I found the research aspect of the draft difficult since it was my first time doing research with the use of surveys. The qualitics tool was intuitive to use but I struggled to write appropriate survey questions and include several leading questions. I revised my questions before posting it to others. I found the data analysis and data visualization features of the tool helpful in adding visuals to my draft. The tool provided several options of graphs with a few clicks and I understood why many surveys use qualtrics. The data analysis for my draft helped me realize that UBC students require help with job searching, and resume and cover letter writing. This reflects my own experience as an undergrad during my first degree in Chemistry. During my first degree, I was focused on passing my courses, studying for exams, and preparing for chemistry labs and did not pay attention to job searching until I graduated. It took me several months before I found a laboratory technician job because I was unfamiliar with writing resumes and I was uncomfortable with interviewing. Currently in my Computer Science degree, I feel more comfortable with job searching and interviewing. This is due to the co-op workshops that I attend that taught students how to write a resume and cover letter, and techniques for interviewing. I felt more comfortable because I had more experience with interviewing during my co-op job searching. Therefore, I believe that UBC students would benefit from having more career related resources available to them and that is why I chose my topic for my formal report. Also, I visited the Surrey City Centre Library to observe and take pictures of career or job related advertisements. I took pictures of brochures, and posters that will be included in my draft. Being able to visit the library created a sense of connection to my report and having a physical location that I can visit brought a sense of purpose to this writing exercise. The process of researching and writing my draft has taught me that it is a long process that has many steps but is rewarding when the topic is relevant to my past experiences and to UBC students in my community.

I peer reviewed my teammate’s report draft and I found their report to be interesting because it had a topic that interested me. My teammate’s draft was about improving the availability of affordable housing for UBC students and I noticed that this issue has been affecting the entire Metro Vancouver area. I found several elements while reading their report that I could include in my own. Their report included the survey questions they used for research in the appendix and I did not think including my questions at all. However, I will include my survey questions in my report after reviewing their report. The process of peer review is an opportunity to discover new ways to improve upon my own work by learning about how different people work, think, and organize.

Enclosure: ENGL 301 Formal Report Draft

ENGL 301 Formal Report Draft Benson Lin

In Unit Two of ENGL 301, I had to research LinkedIn best practices and write a memo about ten best practices. Then I had to brainstorm a topic for a formal report and wrote a report proposal about the topic. Also, I peer reviewed one of my teammate’s report proposals while he reviewed mine. 

For the LinkedIn best practices assignment, I had to find several sources online to create a LinkedIn profile. I compiled ten practices that I believed were the most helpful in creating a profile that would stand out to employers and recruiters. I attended co-op workshops at UBC that went through the common elements that should be included in a profile and I have an existing LinkedIn profile. During my research, I discovered useful tips to incorporate into my own profile such as having a headline that details your career identity and having a summary that is like a story about your professional career. Doing the research and writing a memo for this assignment and reading the memos of my fellow teammates reminded myself to update my LinkedIn profile. I believe I can improve my profile by following some of the tips that I learned from my own research and from my teammates thanks to this assignment. It was interesting to read about the many best practices that people have written about online and it shows how popular and powerful LinkedIn as a platform is.

I believe that brainstorming about a research topic was difficult for me as I wasn’t a part of any community organization. I was able to land on a topic about the library and how to best raise awareness of library resources because I feel like many people are not aware of the variety of offerings that are available. At first, I did not include an intended audience which Dr. Paterson reminded me to revise. I decided to change my initial proposal to target UBC students and added the Student Services Manager of the AMS to be my intended audience for my formal report. I changed my target population from the general public to UBC students because I thought it would be easier to reach UBC students with my surveys. Also, I believe that students would find resources about job search and application packages to be useful.

Being able to peer review my teammate’s report proposal and receiving feedback on my own was engaging and a great way to practice my proofreading skills. My teammate highlighted some common grammar errors and missing commas that I made in my proposal. My teammate also suggested adding clarifications in my introduction. In my peer review of my teammate’s proposal, the most common suggestion I made was to add clarification in several sections to provide context as to why certain areas of inquiry were being investigated. By peer reviewing my teammate’s proposal and writing my own, it is clear to me that writing proposals require several rounds of peer review to reach a point of clarity and quality that is convincing to the intended audience.

Formal Report Proposal: Benson Lin (Revised)

https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl30198a2022s12/2022/06/29/peer-review-of-bensons-formal-report-proposal-garrett-yeo/

In Unit One of ENGL 301, the main assignment was to write a definition of a technical term for an audience with no prior knowledge of the subject matter. The term I chose to define is Abstraction and this term is an important concept in computer science and software engineering. The term can be difficult to describe without the use of technical jargon and complex examples. Three different types of definitions were written: parenthetical, sentence, and expanded definition. Each definition has varying amounts of details where parenthetical definitions have a small amount of details, sentence definitions have a larger amount of detail, and expanded definitions have the most amount of detail. This assignment was a great way to practice clear and concise writing because the definitions needed to be free from jargon and understandable to a non-technical audience. The writing process involved choosing phrases carefully and thinking about how to explain certain concepts with enough detail for the intended audience.   

In the peer review process, I read a team member’s (Dennis Tianxiang Deng) definition and give feedback on their work. Reading my team member’s definitions gave me ideas on how to improve my own definition. I was able to see how they organized the definitions by bolding and underlining subheadings and positioned visuals close to explanation paragraphs to create a good reading experience. I provided constructive feedback on how to improve on my team member’s definitions. The peer review process was helpful to receive feedback on my work so that my areas of improvement could be identified. Reading another team member’s work allowed me to critique another definition through critical lens and learn about areas of improvement that I could incorporate in my own work.

I was given feedback on my work to revise and improve my definitions. My team member pointed out missing citations for visuals and gave me suggestions on the placement of visuals to improve readability. I received feedback about my parenthetical definition which required correction. I reread the textbook to clarify the structure and purpose of a parenthetical definition to make the correction. This assignment taught me how to write a clear and concise definition that was free from technical jargon for a non-technical audience. It also taught me how to peer review and provide constructive feedback on someone else’s work. I believe that this assignment has improved my technical writing and editing skills and I look forward to future assignments with my writing team.     

Link to edited definition:

https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl30198a2022s12/2022/06/13/revised-definition-abstraction/

Hyperlink to peer review by Chris Jung:

https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl30198a2022s12/2022/06/10/peer-review-of-bensons-definition/

Email 1:

Dear Garrett,

I enjoyed reading your application letter and I wanted to see if you would want to form a team for English 301 this semester. I found that we share a similar goal in improving our writing skills so that it can be used to further our careers. Your well-rounded skill set that you gained from BC Hydro are impressive and I think we can both help each other improve our organization and collaboration skills.

I have previous co-op experiences as a Software Engineer where I worked on projects that required me to lead my own meetings, write technical documents and work on a tight schedule. Feel free to read about me further in my blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/bensonlinengl30198a/. Let me know if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Benson Lin

Email 2:

Dear Dennis,

I enjoyed reading your application letter and I wanted to see if you would want to form a team for English 301 this semester. We are both second degree Computer Science students who were unsatisfied with the careers from our first degrees. Your self-directed approach to learning would be a great addition to any writing team. I struggled with not reaching out to others for help but I have been improving throughout the years. We can help each other improve on our weaknesses together.   

I have previous co-op experiences as a Software Engineer where I worked on projects that required me to lead my own meetings, write technical documents and work on a tight schedule. Feel free to read about me further in my blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/bensonlinengl30198a/. Let me know if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Benson Lin

Email 3:

Dear Chris,

I enjoyed reading your application letter and I wanted to see if you would want to form a team for English 301 this semester. We are both second degree Computer Science students. Your hands-on experience in business writing is a valuable asset to a writing team. Your enthusiasm for self-improvement shows from your dedication with learning English and would be a welcome addition to the team. 

I have previous co-op experiences as a Software Engineer where I worked on projects that required me to lead my own meetings, write technical documents and work on a tight schedule. Feel free to read about me further in my blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/bensonlinengl30198a/. Let me know if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Benson Lin