Category Archives: Uncategorized

Strengths

I noticed that I’m very good at giving peer reviews. If a particular writing style doesn’t flow or make sense to me, I’m quick to identify why (i.e. what does this term mean?). I’m also quick to take note of any typos or mistakes the author makes.

I’m also very good at formatting in terms of making things readable in a bullet point format which is something I’ve used throughout all the assignments. I think this is also supported by the peer reviews about me where the reviews often complement the clear structure of my formatting.

Weaknesses

I notice I hand in work late a lot of the time. Most of it has to do because I don’t add the course schedule to my Google calendar, and part of it has to do with time management because of work, other classes, and taking care of my daughter.

I also notice that the tone of my writing is too negative which is especially bad because it makes my writing sound less convincing and makes giving feedback more personal. I really enjoyed the “Writing with YOU attitude” exercises because they allowed me to understand why my writing sounded so negative, and I feel like my report topic of “Strategies to make meetings at Momonono more effective” was a good pivot to apply this strategy.

Future goals 

As I’m graduating this term and entering the workforce as an entry-level software engineer at Microsoft. Software Engineers especially as they progress in their careers need to plan technical reports on how to build a system. It’s especially hard to write this report in a way that is easy to understand. However, the skills that I learned from the ‘Definitions’ (especially expansion strategies), ‘Writing with YOU attitude’, and general writing tips such as avoiding imperative verbs, and formatting will make writing a technical report a lot more effective.

In Unit 3, the content involved writing with “You Attitude”, writing the formal report draft, and a peer review of our partner’s formal report draft. I considered this the most challenging part of the course because it involves applying a lot of components that we learned throughout the course.

Writing with you attitude

This concept was revolutionary, as focusing on the reader’s needs instead of my own allowed my writing to be more persuasive, and communicate ideas more effectively. A concept that helped is avoiding imperative verbs, which allowed my writing to be more persuasive by making the tone be more suggesting rather than command. Another concept that helped is turning the negative to a positive, which allows the reader to not view the situation as a negative but as an opportunity to improve, which is more positive and allows the reader to be more likely to enact the report’s suggestions.

Formal Report Draft

During the report outline feedback, I was told to use the strategy of turning the negative into a positive. Especially with the nature of my report topic being how to make the meetings in Momonono better, this is even more important as it’s much more effective for the report’s tone to be positive rather than negative for the manager to enact the suggested changes.

Some challenges I faced during the draft were underestimating the time of getting the participants to fill out the survey and finding research articles to find strategies to fix the problems in meetings at Momonono.

However, despite the challenges, the report draft was a good experience to apply the content in this course and was a very rewarding process.

Peer Review

I reviewed Aman Johal’s formal report draft. This was a great opportunity as Aman’s draft was very easy to read and figuring out how and why, I was able to apply his style of writing to my report. Aman’s report included sublime techniques such as formatting, listing the flow of his report before the report starts, and supporting points that applied the “Writing with YOU attitude” very well (i.e. using studies that directly support the effect of e-Scooters on university campuses), tabular spacing between each subsection for easier reading, applying a more transparent approach in my report (i.e. the negatives of applying these meeting strategies).

In addition, I found the mistakes Aman made can also be applied to my own report. This included applying the studies to the Audience’s context, and adding background information on the study (i.e. number of participants, who the participants are).

Conclusion

Overall, Unit 3 was very challenging as the draft is very intimidating due to its work count and scale (i.e. getting participants, and creating a survey). However, throughout the process, I learned the concepts of “writing with YOU attitude”, the process of writing a formal report and peer reviewing a report.

ENGL 301 Draft

Hi,

I apologize but I accidentally posted the assignment on my team blog instead of my own blog. Here’s the link to on my team’s blog for my reflection as evidence that I posted on time: https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl30199c2022w2/2023/03/17/unit-2-reflection/

The reflection posted here is the exact same

LinkedIn

I have used LinkedIn aimlessly before and didn’t accomplish notable results from it. After doing this task though, I know where I went wrong and feel more comfortable creating a good LinkedIn profile. Each of the best practices I researched has different uses. For example, completing your profile can be used to attract recruiters since completed profiles show your profile more in the search algorithm. Whereas cold messaging people and joining LinkedIn groups can be used to expand your network to find jobs in the hidden job market.

Formal Report

I’ve never written a formal report before, so I struggled immensely thinking of an idea for my formal report. It was hard to find the right balance of feasibility, familiarity, and personal interest. An example of feasibility would be knowing that your primary sources will include interviewing people that you have to know will be willing to partake in the interview.

I eventually settled for a research topic on ‘Strategies to make meetings more effective’. However, this topic didn’t address someone of authority so I had to redo my whole proposal and change it to ‘Strategies to make meetings more effective in a tech company I used to work at’. I have some concerns regarding maintaining the anonymity of the company I worked at since I don’t want to criticize a company’s meeting practices as it’s controversial.

Peer Review

I’ve learned to use real-life examples when explaining a concept. In Aman’s proposal of e-scooters on campus, he used examples such as Kelowna and the e-scooter company Lime which I thought was a stellar comparison. I also notice that a lot of proposals on my team’s writing forum contained unnecessary wording and phrasing that could be removed and the proposal would still be understood so I want to try to do that to make my writing more concise.

Link to the revised proposal: https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl30199c2022w2/2023/03/02/peer-review-of-formal-report-proposal-for-aman-johal/

Note: Didn’t have a peer review done for me as my initial proposal got rejected.

Thank you for reading my reflection. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Corbyn

While writing

I used to use a separate sentence to define a term which would make my writing incoherent and difficult to follow. Using parenthesis definitions conveys the complex terms more simply and effectively while allowing my writing to be coherent and easier to follow.

I used history, analysis of parts, visuals, and comparison and contrasts for my methods of expanded definitions. These tools allow me to explain complex terms in a variety of ways to make the reader understand my writing more effectively.

Peer reviewing

Creating a list of things to look out for was very useful before peer-reviewing a document. It allows me to spot errors in the document, that I wouldn’t have noticed otherwise. This list can then be reorganized into sections of my peer review which makes it much easier to read for my partner.

Self-editing

My partner gave fantastic feedback. He recommended explaining terms that a computer science student wouldn’t know. I also didn’t complete all of the assignment’s requirements so I completely did those which include 1. another reference 2. another method of expanded definitions. I also re-did the formatting and added subsections to my assignment so that it will be easier to read and more coherent.

Link of peer’s review

Link  of revised revision

To: Justin Tang, English 301 Student <jtang102@student.ubc.ca>

From: Corbyn Kwan, English 301 Student <naruto01@student.ubc.ca>

Date: January 31, 2023

Subject: English 301 Writing Team

Dear Justin,

I have already accepted the invitation to join your English 301 writing team. I agree with you that we would make an excellent team as our team all pursues to work in tech.

I read your application letter, and feel that you are an excellent team member to have because of the various positions you had in your previous degree, and I’m a huge believer that a variety of experiences will make you more competent

I also agree with your learning philosophy and am also a huge advocate of having an open mind to suggestions.

Looking forward to working with you

Sincerely,

Corbyn

To: Delsther James Edralin, English 301 Student <dedralin@student.ubc.ca>

From: Corbyn Kwan, English 301 Student <naruto01@student.ubc.ca>

Date: January 31, 2023

Subject: English 301 Writing Team

Dear Delsther,

I have already accepted the invitation to join your English 301 writing team. Thank you for introducing yourself.

I read your application letter, and feel that you are an excellent team member to have because of your prior experience as an Architectural Technologist writing reports, and Architecture student writing research papers which is translatable when writing peer reviews for the team.

I resonated with your learning philosophy because I also believe that working with others will allow us to learn better, and this is an excellent philosophy to have as a team member.

Looking forward to working with you

Sincerely,

Corbyn

To: Aman Johal, English 301 Student <ajohal21@gmail.com>

From: Corbyn Kwan, English 301 Student <naruto01@student.ubc.ca>

Date: January 31, 2023

Subject: English 301 Writing Team

Dear Aman,

Thank you for the invitation. I will accept the invitation to join your English 301 writing team. I read your application letter, and feel we complement each other since we both study computer science, and have prior professional experience.

I’m avid that you have previous experience peer reviewing, and writing reports as a pharmacist manager, and feel that it will transfer well when peer reviewing our team’s work.

Looking forward to working with you

Sincerely,

Corbyn

MEMORANDUM

To: Erika Paterson

From: Corbyn Kwan

Date: 25 January 2023

Subject: Email memo assignment

As you know, I was assigned to post a letter of application to find compatible team members for the rest of the term.

To summarize, what the letter of application entails:

• My professional goal to be a tech entrepreneur
• My work experience at Microsoft, SAP, and Credit Hero
• My volunteer experience at a club, hackathons, and as a freelance developer
• My academic achievements and scholarships I’ve been awarded.
• My strengths which entail good work ethics and practices
• My weaknesses, which entail flaws in my writing style.
• My learning philosophy of understanding how everything works.

If you require any additional assistance, please contact me by email.

Enclosure: 301 Corbyn Kwan Application letter

Dear prospective writing teammates:

I am writing this letter so that you can evaluate if we are compatible in terms of writing skills, and academic/professional interests. If so, we can form a team together.

My professional goal is to build something of my own and be a tech entrepreneur. To support this goal, moving up the career ladder in the engineering manager path will develop skills to lead people, and communicate with stakeholders that will translate to my goal.

As for work experience, I will be working as a Software Engineer at Microsoft in July. I interned as a Software Engineer at Microsoft, SAP, and Credit Hero.

As for volunteer experiences, I worked as a developer in Campus Nutrition, won BizHacks 2021, and work on paid technical projects for clients part-time.

As for academic achievements, I got into the Computer Science program at UBC, and received the Outstanding International Student Award.

Below is a list of my strengths and weaknesses in terms of writing skills, and work habits:

Strengths

• Gets work done early
• Very responsive to messages
• Non-judgmental to any questions or feedback

Weaknesses 

• The flow of my writing is incohesive
• Lacks variety in sentence patterns

My learning philosophy is to understand how everything works. I dislike it when someone says “it’s just how it is”. When I don’t understand something, I ask a question during lectures and do my own research if it’s outside the scope of the class. By understanding how everything works, you are able to use what you learned in your day-to-day life.

I appreciate you reading this letter, and hope to hear from you soon. Feel free to contact me by email: naruto01@student.ubc.ca

Sincerely,

Corbyn

301 Corbyn Kwan Application letter

Just testing that this works!