One major concept I learned when writing up my formal report draft and peer review was using YOU attitude. While writing, I learned to avoid commands or other pretentious language. Instead, I tried to write in such a way that made suggestions without insulting the reader’s intelligence. I believe this will be helpful when I eventually join the workforce, and want to write in such a way that won’t offend my colleagues, employers, or other people I work with. For example, even making a small mishap in a memo could lead to a customer being highly offended. This could then cause the company I work for to lose a major project. For this reason, it’s important to always write in such a way that treats the reader as an equal.
When performing research for my formal report draft (where my topic is concerned with the efficient use of TA’s for providing resources to students), I was able to gather valuable information about how students think courses could be improved (with respect to resources provided by TA’s and instructors). For example, over eighty percent of students surveyed would like out of class exam review sessions. This was not something I was aware of before performing my survey, as it isn’t something I had ever specifically wanted in courses I’ve taken. Using this fact, I’ll make sure to emphasize in my formal report how exam review sessions could be used to improve student learning, and lead to more efficient allocation of TA’s. Overall, I learned that survey results can not only be used to express the general importance of a topic, but also be used for making specific recommendations in a report.
In the process of reviewing my peer review partner’s work, I noticed that he didn’t focus on the readers’ needs enough. This alerted me to the fact that I should write more for my reader in my own formal report, and emphasize why my suggestions could benefit them. This important idea of using YOU attitude has been key to writing and editing my formal report. Another observation I made while doing the peer review was my writing partner’s effective use of bolding and varied font sizes to effectively organize his report into sections. I realized that before submitting my final report, I would like to edit it in such a way that key words such as section titles are emphasized using colour, bolding, and larger fonts. I believe this will help make my report both more readable and professional.
Overall, working on the formal report and performing a peer review of my writing partner’s work has helped me develop my own writing skills, especially with respect to using YOU attitude.