Unit one of English 301 is comprised of three different weeks, which required the student to set up their blogs, create teams by writing professional memos, draft an assignment by writing three methods of definitions, and peer reviewing their teammates definition assignment.
A vital aspect of being employed is the ability to communicate professionally, which can apply to providing a clear and concise description of a technical term to an individual without a technical background. During the definitions assignment, we learned how to properly explain a technical term in three different ways, all of which should be easily readable. Technical jargon should be avoided; simpler terms are a preferable option. I appreciated the exercise in which we explained terms that we were familiar with, and how to extend that to an audience with a non-technical background.
Another part of being a working professional is the ability to provide constructive feedback to one’s peers and coworkers. The textbook provided helpful insight for how to provide constructive feedback by providing it most positive and helpful way possible. Feedback should be expressed as how you interpreted the person’s work, you should use specific examples, and tangible improvements should be suggested. This is very different from degrading or insulting the individual’s work, or suggesting vague improvements. Criticisms should not be made if you do not also have a suggestion for improvement.
Peer reviewing assignments helped me find issues with my writing that I would have otherwise overlooked. Jennifer was able to help me provide more clarity in my writing by pointing out ambiguity in a sentence where it was difficult to tell what the subject of the sentence was. After I realized I had made that mistake, I went back and combed over my assignment to not only make sure that there was no more ambiguity, but also to check to see if I could eliminate any use of passive voice like the textbook recommended. Another important note was that the purpose of the assignment was to provide a non-technical reader with a simple explanation of a complicated term. I realized that I had including technical jargon in my original report that someone without expertise in the area would not be able to understand. I remedied that by breaking it down into simpler terms, which made the definition more verbose but clearer.
Below I have posted a link to my original definitions assignment, attached Jennifer Macfarlane’s peer review of my definitions assignment, and attached the revised version of that assignment.
https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-99c-2018wc/2019/01/18/assignment-1-3-definitions-3/
ENGL 301 Brent Hanover edited definitions ENGL 301 JM peer review of BH definitions