TO: Alison Ma
FROM: Sydney Storie
DATE: June 9, 2020
SUBJECT: Review of Definition- Purchasing Power Parity
Dear Alison, I have reviewed your assignment for the definition of Purchasing Power Parity. I found that you have done an excellent job of organizing your material and providing sufficient information to define Purchasing Power Parity in the following contexts; a parenthetical definition, a sentence definition, and an expanded definition. Upon reading your assignment, I have provided feedback, please review my recommendations below.
Initial Impressions: After reading the material I now understand what Purchasing Power Parity means. At first glance of the word, I was unsure of the definition behind it. However, through reading the parenthetical definition, the sentence definition, and the expanded definition there was enough background information and visual examples to have a clearer understanding of the word. I found that the visual representation helped a lot to put the Purchasing Power Parity into context. My suggestion would be to provide a brief description of what the Big Mac Index is. As I am a reader not familiar with this material, I had to google and find background information on the Big Mac Index to understand how this plays a role in Purchasing Power Parity.
Organization: I found that each section of the definition provided credible sources and valuable information required to understand the definition. Comparing and contrasting was used to differentiate between currency exchange rate and purchasing power parity which was clever to allow readers to distinguish between the two items and not get confused. The use of a visual image was useful to provide the purchasing power parity into real-life context and to see the difference between an item in exchange rate and purchasing power parity in different countries.
Regarding the introduction, I would recommend mentioning the term you will be talking about. For example, when you state
“The purpose of this assignment is to explain a difficult concept using technical writing skills to the group of target audience with little or no experience in a related field. We are required to explain the term in the parenthetical, sentence and expanded format” … I would then include “the term I will be defining is Purchasing Power Parity”.
This introduces the reader to your specific term that you will be writing about.
Regarding the visuals, I would double-check with the MLA or APA formatting to see if you need to label each image. For example, image 1 may be labeled as Figure 1. Then image 2 may be labeled Figure 2. I know for APA this is required.
Grammar: Regarding grammar, I have bolded my recommendations:
- Introduction
- The purpose of this assignment is to explain a difficult concept (perhaps term is more suitable than concept for this assignment) using technical writing skills to the group (you could eliminate ‘to the group’ and rewrite as ‘using technical writing skills to a target audience’) of (the) target audience with little or no experience in a related field. We are required to explain the term in the parenthetical, sentence(,) and expanded format.
- Parenthetical Definition
- Big Mac Index reflects the Purchasing Power Parity (currencies (currency) measurement through a “basket of goods” approach) in terms of consumer purchasing power.
- Compare and contrast
- Purchasing Power Parity is measuring currencies by observing a basket of goods. Through the cost of goods could the economist understand the real price level in the market that consumer is (consumers are) facing in their everyday life, which is arguably a closer estimate than the exchange rate.
Additional Comments: Overall, excellent work, the assignment was easy to read and understand. The organization of methods was well-balanced, providing easy flow and understanding of the definition. There were minimal errors. The sources were credible and there was sufficient background information to define purchasing power parity. In my opinion, the visual paragraph was the strongest component. I enjoyed reading your assignment and now I can understand and describe to others what purchasing power parity means, which I was not able to do before, as I was unfamiliar with the term. I hope you find my recommendations appropriate. Please do not hesitate to contact me regarding any questions or concerns with my feedback.
https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-98a-2020sa/2020/06/05/assignment-13-technical-definition/
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