UNIT ONE REFLECTION BLOG
February 10, 2019
In Unit 1, we were instructed to create a blog, introduce ourselves using various professional documents, compose three definitions, and peer-review a teammate’s definition assignment.
Original Writing
When first thinking about a specialized term for the definition assignment, I asked myself what is a term I enjoy researching in psychology? I decided to choose Frontotemporal Dementia because I had recently finished a literature review on the disease. Therefore, I initially thought this assignment would be easy for me, but little did I know, that wasn’t the case. The first challenge I encountered was determining a unique reading situation where the audience lacked general knowledge about the term. My second challenge was choosing appropriate expansion strategies. When first reading the textbook, I understood operating principle to mean how frontotemporal dementia would be diagnosed, rather than how the illness progresses biologically.
Peer-Review Process
The peer-review process was enlightening as I got to see my strengths, weaknesses, and sources of confusion. When peer-reviewing Tamar’s assignment, I tried to find a balance between giving constructive criticism and positive feedback. I would always start with noting a positive strategy and then would follow it up with a suggestion for improvement. At first, I was shy to have another student critique my work, however, I have learned that this process only makes your writing better.
Self-Editing
While editing my definitions assignment, I made sure to incorporate all of Tamar’s feedback from his peer-review. I thought carefully about ways to improve the overall organization of the document. I chose to add in information about the expected timeline of symptoms for the disease under the operating principle strategy. In addition, I deleted irrelevant information to make the document more concise.
Overall the process of writing, peer-reviewing, and self-editing were very instructive. I learned key strategies for technical writing, such as choosing the correct definition for a specific audience, formatting techniques for various professional documents, and page design strategies to increase readability.
Enclosure: Brionne-Revised Definition Assignment
Tamar’s Peer Review of Frontotemporal Dementia: https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-99c-2018wc/2019/01/27/peer-review-of-assignment-1-3-write-three-definitions-frontotemporal-dementia/