This week’s unit is mainly about the process of writing a formal report. I thoroughly enjoyed the process of researching and composing my report as the topic I choose was something that I cared about. This assignment provided me with an opportunity to propose a solution to a problem that I always wanted to address. Having been participating in the UBC intramurals for so long, I always wanted to address the problem of skill imbalance in the league as it was making the intramural experience less enjoyable for a lot of people, however, I never took the initiative to solve this problem because I didn’t know how to proceed. This is mostly due to the fact that I did not know how to compose a proper report for proposing solutions and addressing issues.
The research I conducted was mostly through interviews and surveys. Gathering information by the means of survey and interviews from primary sources was a new experience for me as most scientific reports are based on lab results and reviewing articles. It was a very interesting and rewarding experience gathering opinions of other players who shared similar views on the need to improve intramural experience. It was not very difficult to gather participants as I knew most of the players in the division. I was able to collect all my data with relative ease and efficiency. The Technical Communications textbook provided very helpful outline of how to construct a proper formal report. Following the guidelines, I was able to effectively organize my data into appropriate sections with headers and present the data in a logical manner.
I found the process of peer reviewing for this assignment to be a bit difficult. My partner’s draft did not yet contain the data he had collected and it was very difficult to provide a detailed review on the report without them. My partner, however, provided me with a very detailed and thoughtful review which I found very helpful. He pointed out the major flaws in my report and made effective suggestions. I realized I had included a lot of unnecessary information in my introduction and did not offer clear explanations for some terms. One of the things I noticed with my writing is that I tend to skip explaining detail with concepts that are familiar to me but are not familiar to the readers. I am always assuming the readers know what I am talking about. I realized I need to improve on writing from the reader’s perspective and implement the strategies I learned from the first unit where I explained a technical term to a non-technical audience. My peer reviewer, Solomon, effectively pointed out this area for me. Again, the peer review part of this unit was invaluable and will help greatly help me improve my writing.