Formal Report Draft
In Unit 3, we conducted research to organize and write out formal report draft based on the proposal and outline written in Unit 2.
Conducting the research was quite enjoyable as it consisted of sending out surveys to fellow UBC students. It was very interesting to learn about the view points and perspectives of my peers regarding a topic I am passionate about. In my personal experience, including a short blurb mentioning the survey will only take a few minutes greatly helps with turnaround time. This proved to be true as most surveys were returned within a day of the survey being sent out. Upon reviewing the survey results, I learned that multiple choice questions were more effective at generating interesting data than custom user input questions. While each participant answered every multiple choice question, two-thirds of participants opted to not answer the one custom user input question regarding why they did not always participate in student evaluations. This made it more difficult to collect comprehensive data and apply the findings to a broader population of students. In the future, I would compose this question in a multiple choice style and have respondents choose the best answer for them. Although this style of question may limit the range of responses, most respondents will be more likely to answer the question in the first place.
The process of composing the first draft of the formal report was mostly straightforward. Having done the previous work from the outline, progress report, and the proposal, I had a solid sense of direction on what tasks needed to be completed and how to organize the report. However, the secondary research section took much longer to draft than expected. This was mainly because in Unit 2 I had planned on exploring more topics than I could reasonably discuss in the literature section of the formal report. Additionally, since I had proposed literature review topics before deeply investigating the range of papers in this field, it was difficult to find reliable, peer-reviewed sources regarding some of my initial topics such as determining the style of evaluation at each Canadian university. As a result, I had to deviate from the planned outline and focus the scope of my research to generate a simpler structure that would better support the survey results and interpretation.
Peer Review
In the peer review, I organized my review by going through the formal report draft section-by-section and providing feedback on specific sections. As my team member’s report was missing a few essential components such as the title and conclusion, I was able to provide some suggestions that would hopefully remind him to include these sections in his final formal report.
The peer review process was once again very helpful to identifying areas of improvement in my own report. During this review, I found myself referring to the peer review criteria to edit my formal draft, ensuring I had each component of the report and that it was readable and well-organized.
The peer review of the formal report was also very helpful for cementing the concept of maintaining a YOU attitude in professional writing. As I was able to quickly identify potential areas for correction for my team member, I will be sure to use this skill to aid me in revising my own work for the final formal report.