Web Folio

For the last assignment of ENGL 301, students were tasked to create a Web Folio that fulfill a specified purpose. The Web Folio serves to highlight specific details that would benefit the intended reader. In my case, the Web Folio serves as a platform that showcases my marketable skills to potential employers in the tech field. The Web Folio contains various components such as:

• A Home page which welcomes the reader
• An About Me page which gives the reader more detailed information about myself
• A Blog page that showcases my reflections on previous units
• A Resume page that contains an online version of my current resume
• An Application Package page which contains a specific job posting, tailored cover letter, custom resume, and letters of reference requests
• A Best Work page which contains revised assignments showcasing a sample of my best work during my time in the ENGL 301 class
• A Projects page which contains work relevant to my career choice

 

The Web Folio was a major assignment, taking a significant amount of time to revise previous work, design an online portfolio, and editing through multiple iterations until the final product can be published. Although I chose to use my existing ENGL 301 blog page as the framework to my now Web Folio, it was difficult to find a theme that I thought was appropriate for my intended audience. Furthermore, there were difficulties in designing the Web Folio due my lack of experience with the UBC Blog platform. However, despite the difficulties, creating the Web Folio was a very enjoyable task. I had the opportunity to read through my previous assignments and edit them, fixing any previous mistakes and incorporating feedback given by my peers and instructor. I witnessed improvements in my writing over time and this was evident through the peer reviews I have received. While some assignments, such as reflection blogs, required few corrections. There were other assignments, such as the Formal Report Proposal, that required more effort to revise.

In addition to revised assignments contained in the Blog and Best Work pages, the Web Folio contains an application package to a SAP internship position and a Projects page that was created for tech employers to see projects I have created outside of ENGL 301. The purpose of the Application Package and Projects pages is to highlight employable skills that I have and support my career in tech.

All in all, I believe the Web Folio assignment has provided a wonderful opportunity to self-reflect on the improvements in writing that I have made during my time with ENGL 301 and use those improved skills to create a platform that can be used to support my career. Through the Web Folio, I have gained practical experience in designing an online portfolio, revising assignments through incorporation of instructor and peer feedback, and completing a major assignment in an intensive writing course. I believe the experience I have gained from this assignment will greatly benefit me as I continue my pursuit to become a Full Stack Developer.

 

Self-Assessment

At the beginning of ENGL 301, I approached the course with confidence as I had previously completed a Bachelor of Science degree with UBC in 2022. During that time, I composed numerous reports and essays for upper-year courses, professors, researchers, and doctors. However, while the previous experience in academic writing have undoubtedly contributed to my success, the writing style I am familiar with may not be the best approach to professional writing. For example, in academic writing, passive voice is often preferred as it is less direct and creates a more objective tone. However, in professional writing such as memos and emails, active voice is preferred because it is less wordy and often more clear. In the beginning, the feedback I received from my peers often stated that the assignment was very wordy and indirect. While not innately a weakness, I believe that my writing style tended to focus on the passive voice and as a result, was more wordy than necessary. Since then, I have learned to differentiate between active and passive voice and the situations in which one would be preferable. It was a difficult process and even currently, I believe I still favor the passive voice for academic assignments. However, I have gained valuable experience from completion of the assigned work in ENGL 301 using various writing styles which will benefit my long term career aspirations to become a Full Stack Developer.

A Full Stack Developer utilizes code to develop new applications for the common user. Code, while difficult to understand, is commonly seen as a language and therefore can be written and reader. Therefore, there are objectively better written code that are clear, concise, and easy to read/follow along. I believe that the skills I have learned in ENGL 301 allows me to write code that is more clear and concise. Given that the manner which code is written directly affects profits, it is greatly beneficial as an aspiring Full Stack Developer to be able to write a solution that works but also be able to incorporate feedback to improve the efficiency of the program. I have demonstrated this skill on various occasions through revision of assignments that included rewording of sentences that were deemed wordy by my peers, and incorporation of feedback given by my instructor on my assignments. Furthermore, it is crucial that Full Stack Developers have great attention to detail, as a single missing semicolon within thousands of lines of code would render the whole program unable to run. Therefore, it is crucial that the Full Stack Developer has great attention to detail and be able to check through the code, just as writers check through their assignments for grammar and spelling mistakes. I have demonstrated this skill through constant revisions and utilization of spell-check programs to ensure minimal grammatical mistakes in my writing. Therefore, I believe that my current skills and strengths, demonstrated in ENGL 301, would serve as a strong foundation on my journey to become a Full Stack Developer.

Unit Three Reflection Blog:

Formal Report Draft

The main task for this unit was to compose a formal report draft based on the chosen topic from unit two. The process of composing the formal report draft involved researching, analyzing, organizing, and writing a document of over 15 pages in length. Research and data collection for my report was done primarily through surveys distributed to UBC students and supplemented through secondary sources such as UBC Blog posts. The analysis and organization segments involved creating visuals such as graphs from collected data and utilizing the results to support the overarching issue. While I have experience creating reports, this assignment took longer than I had anticipated. There was much background research involved in order to adequately support my claims in the report and information was not readily available. For example, it was quite difficult to determine the number of students that would study at Irving K. Barber Learning Centre on a daily basis. Despite being in contact with staff from Irving K. Barber, we were unable to determine a specific number. As such, an estimate was used based on the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre official website.

The research component took the most amount of time with the organizing and writing components following suit. Some of the data collected from the surveys were not expected and rather surprising, however, I soon came to realize the unexpected data stemmed from biased distribution that was addressed in the limitation section of the formal report draft. Another component that took longer than expected was the analysis of data and generation of figures. The distributed survey contained only 12 multiple choice questions, however, extracting the data manually and creating visuals that included components such as appropriately-sized labels, headings, and colours took longer than expected.

All in all, it was a wonderful learning experience to conduct research, analyze data, generate figures based on transformed data, and organize the information into a cohesive report. While completing the assignment, I realized there were many areas that I would do differently to increase the overall quality of the data, such as distributing the surveys to students across all years instead of mainly senior years. However, after the completion of this formal report draft, I feel much more confident creating and submitting large reports. 

 

Peer Reviewing Formal Report Draft

I had the opportunity to review the formal report draft of my partner, Parsa Zehtab. I was blown away by the quality of the report and it was executed well with very minimal flaws. Many of the previous mistakes were not present and it demonstrated the improvements that Parsa has made from this course. A few areas of strength I noticed from Parsa’s formal report draft included his supplemental research, use of figures to illustrate the findings, and the overall ease in following along with the paper. The supplemental research addressed the questions I had while reading and it was clear that Parsa addressed the issue holistically. While reading along, I found that it was easy to follow along and understand the statements being made. I believe this was due to the organization of the writing as well as usage of clear language. Overall, the peer review process allowed me to determine areas of strength regarding Parsa’s paper that I would wish to implement in my own writing for future assignments.

 

ENGL-301-Formal-Report-Draft

 

 

Unit Two Reflection Blog:

LinkedIn Reflection

 

One of the numerous tasks in this unit involved researching best practices for the professional social media platform, LinkedIn. While I already had a LinkedIn account and was familiar with its purpose, I learned much more about the platform after my research. For example, I was not aware that creative mode was even an option. Through this assignment, I consolidated information from various sources such as blogs and the official LinkedIn website and presented it to my peers. This process allowed me to practice collecting information and quickly reformat the information in my own words. As a result, I gained confidence not only in conveying information but also in using LinkedIn to network with other people. Overall, the assignment was very informative and I gained valuable experience from it. 

 

Formal Report Proposal / Outline 

The main task for this unit involved creating a formal report proposal and outline. At the beginning, I found brainstorming for a formal proposal topic to be quite difficult. Originally, I had the idea of creating a formal report on the topic of emergency department wait times. However, while the topic is very relevant and of personal interest, it was simply too large a scale for this assignment. As a result, even though I conducted much research into the topic, I ultimately decided to scrap the topic and choose another one. Currently, I am progressing well with the report as the  simplicity of the new topic allows a clear path with no complications (so far). I am excited to convert the information I gather into a formal report that will address an issue that is very tangible to myself as a UBC student.  I believe creating the formal report proposal and outline allowed me to have a clear vision and laid out the framework regarding the formal report. Approaching the formal report now, I feel much more confident than I was at the beginning with no direction or guidance. 

 

Peer Review Process

The peer review process for this unit involved reviewing a team member’s proposal and providing feedback regarding the organization, expression, content, language, and overall impressions. While already done once before, the peer review process continues to teach new lessons and highlight recurring issues that I was not aware of. For example, I had the opportunity to review my partner’s (Parsa Zehtab) work. Through reviewing Parsa’s work and seeing the strengths of my partner’s proposal, I realize mistakes that I have made and aspects I could improve on in my writing. Reading and critiquing a peer’s work is not easy but I find that being able to critically analyze a piece of literature increases the confidence and quality of my own writing. Furthermore, after reading through the feedback given by Parsa, I notice a trend where I make recurring mistakes in my work such as grammatical errors or using redundant words. The feedback given by my peers have allowed me to understand areas where I can improve on and overall I believe the peer review process has been a beneficial experience in my writing journey

 

Revised Report Proposal

Formal Report Proposal Review

 

Unit One Reflection Blog:

Composition of the First Draft for the Technical Definition:

For unit 1.3, students were to complete an assignment that focuses on the importance of definitions. The assignment involved the usage of various definitions to describe a technical term to a non-technical audience. This assignment proved to be interesting yet challenging. I have not consciously utilized different methods previously and it was very informative to learn about the different ways of conveying information. My term, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, is mainly utilized in the medical field. Due to the complexity of the term, it was difficult to eliminate the jargon and communicate the definition to a non-technical audience. However, the parenthetical, sentence, and expanded definition made it easier to break down the information and explain the term in a coherent manner. Through this assignment, I have learned to utilize the different definitions and their roles. For example, while the parenthetical definition serves to provide clarity of a term in parentheses, the sentence definition describes the term along with its unique features. Finally, the expanded definition provides more details through various methods such as explaining its history, operation principle, and analysis of its components (if applicable). Through completion of the assignment, I have learned different methods to defining a term and tailoring it to a specific audience.

 

Peer Review Process

For the peer review process, I had the opportunity to review my teammate Riya Kathuria’s draft on the term “demand generation”. As I found myself reading over the draft multiple times, I realized that I have made mistakes that I needed to improve upon in my own work. It was an enlightening experience to see how my teammate utilized the same writing techniques in a different manner. For example, while I chose to use analysis of components as one of my expanded definitions, my teammate chose to use examples and current usage to define their term. After reading over the draft, I found myself being able to spot areas that needed improvement and I was able to provide constructive criticism that hopefully will benefit my teammate.  I also received great feedback from another teammate and I was excited to implement their suggestions into my work.

 

Revision Process

Once the peer review stage was complete, students were to incorporate the feedback given from their teammates and revise the draft to improve the overall quality of writing. While some mistakes I caught upon re-reading my assignment, my teammates pointed out areas where slight changes would lead to significant improvement in clarity and in understanding. For example, because the MRI contained components that were quite complex, my teammate suggested that I include parenthetical definitions of the components as well to make the term easier to comprehend. Furthermore, my teammate pointed out sentences that were too wordy and could be phrased better. The criticism provided by my teammate allow me to strengthen areas that I need to work not only for this assignment, but in the future as well. The overall process of writing a draft, reviewing a peer’s work, and revising my own work based on my peer’s criticism allowed me to further refine my writing skills. I am grateful for the feedback given by my team and I look forward to future opportunities of growth.

 

Link to Revised Definition: Click Here

Link to Peer’s Review: Click Here