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Lesson 3:3

WEEK NINE: Review and Reflect: Reading your Formal Reports & planning for the future

Objectives:

  • Reviewing and reflecting on your formal reports

Readings:

3:3 Assignments:

PLEASE SEE Due dates on our Course Schedule

  •  Peer Review of Formal Report Draft posted on your team forum and include a link to your partner’s Draft at the bottom of the page. And, emailed to your peer with a word doc attachment before midnight  [late assignments will loose 0.5 points per day]
  •  Unit Three Reflections Blog, before midnight  [late assignments will loose 0.5 points per day]

Instructions for Assignments:

 Peer Review of Formal Report Draft:

Create a template for peer reviewing a Formal Report Draft referring to previous instructions, and examples.

Your purpose is to give your colleague constructive and balanced feedback, employing YOU attitude throughout the review, that will allow for effective revision at the next stage of the report project. Your review should begin by identifying the report by name, and it should indicate in specific terms the strengths of the draft and also the specific areas of the draft where revision would lead to marked improvements in the final presentation copy. The YOU attitude should be employed and as always focus on conciseness and details. In crafting your review, consider the following questions of content, organization, style, and design:

Checklist for Peer Review of a Report Draft:

Begin by creating sections for each and every element of the document:

Ask the follow questions of the overall document:

Content

  • Which specific part(s) of the draft’s content did you find most informative?
  • Which specific part(s) of the draft’s content would you recommend for revision, and what revision would you recommend?
  • Has the report identified and analyzed a problem or an area for improvement, and has it recommended workable and affordable solutions?
  • Do any important technical terms in the report need definition for the intended audience?
  • Is the report logically laid out with problems and solutions discussed in an organize progression?
  • Keeping in mind the identified reader for the report; is each section relevant to the identified reader?

Organization

  • Is the organization of the draft clear and effective at all points?
  • Are there effective heads and sub headings: do the headings and sub-headings of the report reveal content clearly?
  • Ensure your peer has avoided writing with BIG chunks of text
  • Are the parts of the report clearly connected to one another at all points?
  • Are there gaps in information or unnecessary sidetracks, and how might they be repaired? (with a clearer heading, an effective transition? a more direct preview statement?)

Style

  • Is the tone objective rather than subjective?
  • Is the tone positive through-out?
  • Does tone reflect the you-attitude toward the identified reader[s] emphasized in Technical Communication ?
  • Are there any individual paragraphs or passages where a reader has difficulty following the writer’s thinking? Identify as specifically as possible.

Design

  • Are graphics well-designed, correctly and effectively labeled, and effectively integrated into the print content of the report?
  • Is the report draft reader-friendly and visually appealing? Could any parts of the report’s design (spacing, font size, layout) use improvement?

Note: If you can think of other relevant questions, by all means use them to develop your review. Consider  bullets to organize the parts of your review, and choose questions most relevant to the draft you’re reviewing. Leave the other less relevant questions aside.

Unit Three Reflections Blog

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?  [late assignments will loose 0.5 points per day].  Please attach a copy of your First Draft to the bottom of the page.