Reflection Blog Unit 3

It is hard for me to believe that it is time to reflect on Unit 3 already. The last three weeks have been very interesting, intense and very challenging all at the same time.

Learning to write with the “You-Attitude” has been quite a stimulating exercise. First, the task was to write a letter to Evan advising him on a professional way to communicate with his professor to register for a class that was full, which was followed by the Inquiry-and the Bad News letters. I can finally better understand the way many businesses choose to structure their letters the way they do. It is the “You-Attitude” format. Obviously, the people who create them must have taken this kind of “English Writing” course long before I have and have been practicing this form of communicating with their clients ever since.

To view the subject matter from the reader’s perspective by trying to “soften the blow and accentuate the positives, offering a reasonable compromise if possible, closing the letter with a positive statement and avoiding referring to the bad news at the end” is not an easy style to adopt but it certainly makes a lot of sense. Further, focusing on the reader’s benefit shows you’ve considered the situation from the reader’s point of view and indeed, it can be appreciated in a different way.

The Formal Report Draft has undeniably been the most challenging “writing experience” for me so far, not only in this unit but in the entire program. The purpose of my report is to assess the feasibility of developing an educational workshop for the patients, who are completely overwhelmed by the process of keeping their teeth clean during their orthodontic treatment to prevent gum inflammation and cavities. I have been in this office for over ten years and as a dental hygienist, I am passionate about all aspect of dental hygiene that relates to patients’ dental care. Seeing how the adolescent patients struggle with their home care while wearing braces has motivated me to research the topic more and plan for a solution.

In Unit 2, writing the Proposal was not an easy task but it did not even compare to formulating the Draft. The most difficult part for me is to design and present the written paper ranging from 12-15 pages to my dentist who I have worked with for over 10 years and who is already familiar with the issue. Presenting the content of my draft to an audience that is unfamiliar with the concept would have been so much easier for I could approach the subject from a different perspective. In my case, the difficulty comes from my reader being all too familiar with the topic and I am trying my best not to bore her with the obvious. Dr. Paterson’s guidelines for drafting to consider the reader in every written sentence are on my mind as I put together different sections of the paper.

Once again, the peer-reviewing exercise, though also challenging in a way, proved to be the most looked forward to feature in this section  and the most satisfying. As our team is down to three members now, from the initial four, our peer-reviewing works as a three-way system. My Report Draft was peer reviewed by Daniel Huettner.  I was very impressed with his evaluation and feedback. He made me realized that I could improve my design which I did not pay that much attention to thinking that the design and layout were just within a norm of any written paper. My concept has changed the moment I viewed Daniel’s Report Draft. His paper was very well planned with perfect spacing and layout, nice graphics and looked very professional. I thought to myself “wow”, I could definitely do better.

The comments he provided were right on target. He pinpointed that my headings and subheadings need improvement as they are too repetitive and lack clarity. As mentioned above, he recommended to improve the visual appearance of my report and to extend the length to 12-15 pages from the recent 10. On the other hand, he recognized the correct use of the “You-Attitude” throughout the report and liked the writing style which made my work worthwhile. For more inspiration to improve my report, I am thinking of reaching out to Daniel for additional feedback before submitting my final copy. Hopefully, he will be able to suggest ways in how to do better in the sections that are deficient so I can get the suggested length.

My peer reviewing of Bhawandeep’s Report Draft underlined for me once again the importance of a professional design, layout, spacing, the significance of clear headings and subheadings, and the accurate choice of words when presenting a topic to a professional reader.

In retrospect, in spite of all the challenges, I have been enjoying this course greatly. The value of peer reviewing our work and the fact that we all post on our teams’ forums play a huge role in developing our writing skills as intended in this program and I find it invaluable and instrumental to my writing.

I look forward to more growth and the advancement of my skills that Unit 4 will provide for me.