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Final Self-assessment reflection

It was no joke when the course introduction mentioned this is an intensive online course. Through this learning process, I have found my writing to have improved drastically. This is achieved through hours of practice, reading my peer’s work and most importantly receiving constructive feedback from my writing team. I have highlighted my biggest takeaways in each section below. 

Importance of outlining

It is very easy to get lost, forget what you are trying to write and why you are writing. This is especially true during writing long reports. I have written many reports before just impatiently diving in blind. Being too excited to get started can be a bad thing as the report usually being too fluffy and being not specific enough.

This is not the case while writing my final report. This course has helped me build the habit of writing an outline. Following it is the easy part with the harder part being creating the outline itself. Trying to capture the essence of what I am trying to communicate takes more energy mentally. Perfecting the arrangement of arguments, supplementing with proof, explanation, and choice of the visual aid is the hard part. However, investing this energy upfront is a lot more efficient and the payoff is a clear, coherent and concise report. Writing the report became easy as each paragraph, each sentence has a purpose. I would even argue that writing the report was the easiest part, I only have to think about word choice instead of focusing on what I am trying to communicate. This has a significant effect on my final report in helping it becoming more coherent and consistent. 

Setting writing goals and write with purpose

I used to be unhappy reading my work. This unhappiness stems from the fact that even I get lost in my writing. Writing with purpose is something I lack and want to improve on coming into this course. I am happy to say I have made progress in doing so as you can tell from my previous section talking about my realization in the importance of outlining. Outlining is the skill I lacked and it took me a long time to realize that is what I needed. I have created outlines before but I didn’t believe in it, I didn’t utilize the full benefit of it. But now something has clicked, I think it is from the intensive writing schedule required of me through this course. The combination of practice with theory allowed me to finally understand what I should be doing. Understanding this proper way of writing is huge for me, for that, I will have to thank this course. 

Ask for feedback and learn from it 

Asking for feedback used to be horrifying for me. Being vulnerable to judgment is the hurdle I couldn’t comprehend. But this course forces you to be open, to feel comfortable to accept the judgment and most importantly learning from it. Accepting other’s criticism and vision of what they believe words should be arranged is eye-opening. Widening my perspective on different writing habits and word choices. This has been an interesting experience that has prepared me for more to come! 

Unit 4 Reflection

I have learned a lot through the process of creating the final report and this web folio. I would say my biggest takeaway is realizing the power of condensation.

I found out my summary of works performed this term at my role of research student changes each time I try to condense my final report. This condensation not only helped me to write more concisely but also allow me to express my intentions more clearly. This increase in clarity while being concise is most apparent when I was creating the executive summary of my final report.

I found writing an executive summary is more appropriate for my report and doing so required me to summarize an entire report down to a page. This led me to write through multiple versions and at the start of each version trying to condense my ideas down to its essence. This allowed me to find new words to express my ideas and in the end, I was very happy.

I couldn’t have written the summary in one version since it is too overwhelming to summarize many hours of work into one page. On the side note, it also scares me that if I had this grand scheme in mind I could’ve performed all required tasks extremely efficiently. I guess this is the advantage of experience and why people would pay more for highly skilled workers with many years of experience under their belt.

But either way, I learned through my “mistakes” and I wouldn’t have been able to mentally comprehend the complex dynamics of what I have been striving to do without completing this formal report. I am very happy with how it turned out and how it captured my thought process throughout the project. Thank you again for this fantastic opportunity to not only practice writing but also an opportunity to reflect.

Unit 3 Reflection

Unit 3 Reflection

Write a reflective blog on the process of researching, organizing and writing your formal report draft and the task of reviewing your peer. What did you learn?  

This course have given me the opportunity to write a technical report summarizing the work I’ve done so far in the term. I am currently a work-learn student for Mark, whom the report is addressed to. I am completing report on my own behalf as this report is not required for work; I chose to write on this topic as I see this as an amazing opportunity to apply the skills I learned in ENGL301 at the meantime receiving feedback from my peer and instructor.

In preparation for the report, I revisited all my field notes, meeting summaries and picture i’ve taken around the site and found these materials to be extremely beneficial for writing. It is surprising how much you forget in the short time frame of 4 months of the countless hours of work I have performed. Therefore this has taught me the importance of the habit of recording details of what i am doing in the future, whether if it’s for work or graduate school (thesis writing!).

Report writing became easy once I populated my outline with the material I want to write about. I think it took more energy gathering and organizing contents than the writing itself. I think this is more important than jumping straight into writing as writing with a purpose feels a lot of direct and concise. It also helped significantly with the flow and the transition of my report which I noticed after reading the draft after I finish writing. This experience definitely taught me to keep investing time and energy in the outline of the paper than jumping directly into writing what i think i should be writing.

Reviewing my peer’s work is interesting. I find the content and the flow of the content very engaging and I just want to keep reading. Which made it hard to focus on the grammar or analyzing if the content is fitting with the rest of the report. I ended up just letting myself read the content of the report once over. And then going through the document again to look for grammar mistakes.

 

Unit 2 Reflection

Note: Duplicated post in team forum submitted on time. Sorry for the confusion!

Unit 2 Reflection

Reflect on the process of creating a LinkedIn profile. How do you feel about creating a professional social media network?

I created my LinkedIn profile a while back but have not updated it due to co-op and school. Now given the chance to look over my profile again, it was really helpful for me to update sections and identify area of improvement. I have updated my employment and awards section while coming up with a good summary section. My peer’s LinkedIn best practice was my starting point in improving my profile such as adding in more media and following company of interest. What I find most helpful was tips in crafting a personable summary. I utilized tips on picking an audience and writing something engaging. This was hard but after a couple versions I wrote something I am happy with. The summary is further refined with the help from Emily’s peer review which was really helpful.

Reflect on the process of brainstorming and preparing your report proposal and outline; how do you feel about your progress with the report?

I think I have gone a long way and done some good work. I have finished volunteering and after multiple conversation with Matt (whom I am interviewing) I think I will have quality and concrete data to write the report with. This will be a relevant report as an additional deliverable for my current job position. It almost serves as a summary of the main problems I faced and the plan moving forward. This will make passing on the project easier if I decide to take a gap year instead of keep working. I find the opportunity to create this report very fitting and grateful for the support I will receive from this course to make it happen!

Do you have questions about how your investigation is going to become a Formal Report — or, put more simply, with how this is all going to come together?

I don’t have burning questions thus far since I am fairly happy with the proposal outline. The glue that will hold this project together is addressing the variability in the current water monitoring system. This problem then breaks down into its two constituents, each body section, and then I will propose solutions to address these problems. As of right now, I think I have a good concept for a formal report. I cannot wait to see how it will unveil in the form of a final report.

Reflect on your peer review for your partner’s proposal; what did you learn?

From my peer review of Diane’s project proposal, I feel very inspired. I feel like there is a depth to her discipline of facilitation that I have not yet understand, she sounds like she is very good at what she is doing. So, from this experience I just feel inspired to be able to expand my perspective a little at how that is a certain “magic” in everything team that we are a part of. Be able to tap into that sounded like a very tough project.

And finally, reflect on the peer review process: what have you learned about your writing and reading by reviewing your team’s writing forum. How do you think peer reviewing has impacted your view of your writing?

I have learned about my weaknesses in my writing that were repeatedly pointed out by different members of my writing team. I feel very grateful to be pointed in a direction that I can improve, specifically my grammar. It turns out that through the peer review process, I can gain a lot more clarity in my writing if I improve my grammar. I noticed a big difference in the flow of the sentence before and after correction. Writing properly is very difficult compared to writing like how I speak.

 

Attachments:

Revised Report Proposal: ENG301_BrianWang_ResearchProposal_edited

URL to peer review: https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-99a-2019wa/2019/10/16/assn-2-1-proposal-peer-review-for-brian-wang/

 

 

Unit 1 Reflection

Through engaging with the writing process, I have realized the effect of different types definition has on the readability of a document. I noticed writing parenthetical definitions is the most effective and practical for me. As per Andree’s advice, I have added more parenthetical definition on various jargon terms I included in the document. This allowed all reader to understand what the content is talking about.

Through engaging with the peer review process, I have realized it is nice to have someone read over my writing. It is easy for me look over jargon that I’ve used without realizing. I have also enjoyed the process in which my work was judged constructively, it is a nice feeling to have done a good job.

Through engaging in the self-editing process, I have learned the importance of revision. I did not realize the impact of improper choice of words (or more so my use of brackets in the assignment) have on the flow of the document. Leaving the document for a week and coming back with fresh eyes helped me picked up these sections more easily.

Peer’s review of my definition: https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-99a-2019wa/2019/09/27/peer-review-photosynthetically-active-radiation/

Attached word file of my re-written definition: ENG301_BrianWang_Edited Definition Assignment

 

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