Unit One of English 301 was extremely useful in teaching students of various backgrounds about technical writing. This is the first time I was introduced to WordPress, which would be helpful if I ever want to write a blog in future. The assignments on how to write memorandums and letter of applications also helped me refresh my memory since I have not written those for a while.
I found the definition assignment quite challenging. Although it was easy to choose a technical term in the field of study, I was not used to writing for an audience who has little or no knowledge of the topic. During my previous studies in biochemistry, all my technical writing assignments were aimed for readers of academic interests similar to mine. Thus, it was difficult trying to come up with simple ways of defining a complex term.
For the peer review portion of the assignment, I partnered with Lauren who wrote about “exposure” in terms of photography. It was a simple topic for me to understand since photography is one of my hobbies. During my first reading, I could not find anything to suggest, but then I realized she could have used a simpler analogy in her expanded definition section.
Since Lauren has a strong background in creative writing, she was able to point out a few grammatical errors and technical jargons which I use from time to time without noticing. For example, the terms ‘pseudocode’ and ‘asymptotic analysis’ are commons terms when I talk to my classmates. One suggestion Lauren had was to place the diagram within the text. However, the diagram which I chose should not be re-sized due to the text within the diagram. In addition, some scientific papers are presented only in texts with diagrams referenced in an appendix. In my opinion, this format makes the paper less cluttered with diagrams.
I learned a lot in Unit One and look forward to starting the next Unit of this course.
To see Lauren’s peer review of my Definition Assignment, please click here.
To download my revised Definition Assignment, please click here.