To: Barton Lui, ENGL 300 99A Student
From: Phoebe Wu, ENGL 300 99A Student
Date: October 21st, 2020
Subject: Formal Report Peer Review Increase Charging Station for Electric Vehicles in UBC Parkades to Promote the Usage of Electric Vehicles
Thank you for submitting your formal report proposal to be peer reviewed. It was very insightful! I would like to offer the following suggestions for improvements:
First Impressions
Increasing sustainability throughout campus is a worthwhile topic to discuss and research. The proposal seems well organized but brief. The audience of the paper is unclear. Scope of the paper seems unfocused.
Organization
The proposal is well organized with the appropriate bolded subtitles which makes it easy to read.
Introduction
The motivation to writing this report is clear and easy to understand. However the second step to the proposed plan, “Lowering the cost of electric vehicle drivers”, needs clarification. More background on the current EV charging situation at UBC would create a better picture of how the proposed solution would improve the current set up.
Problem
Are there enough EV owners at UBC that there are not enough available charging stations? Expansion of the introduction would help clarify this section.
Proposed Solution
The proposed solution is a good idea and seems feasible for UBC to implement.
General Topic
The topic seems niche for a 12-15 page report. Broadening the topic to include all types of sustainable transportation methods could help extend it. For example, ride-share programs like EVO and biking, like Dr. Paterson suggested, are popular ways students commute to campus. Owning an electric vehicle is a large financial responsibility. Including other ways to promote sustainable transportation that is accessible to all students may be a broader topic that could be explored deeper.
Scope
The problems stated here do not seem to be targeted to one audience. Is this report for an electric vehicle owner, or for UBC? Why would UBC need to know the benefits of driving an EV, financially and environmentally. What do you mean by driving behaviour?
If the report is targeted at UBC, the scope should be expanded to investigate whether increasing charging stations will actually increase the number of electric vehicles parked on campus or if it will just displace the gasoline cars to park elsewhere. Some other questions that might be interesting to explore are:
- Will having more parking spots for EVs motivate students to buy an EV just so they can use the parking spot?
- How many EV owners are there at UBC?
- UBC already has a shortage of parking spots, if some are converted to EV special spots, where will the spillover cars park?
- How can UBC maintain fair usage of the parking spots – e.g. Cars that park from 8am – 9pm
- What is the status of the current charging stations?
Methods
Looking at peer-reviewed journals are a reliable way to find answers to complicated questions. How will you find students who regularly drive an EV to school for the interview?
Expression – Grammar/Typos
There seem to be several small errors scattered around the proposal. For example, the use of a period instead of a comma after “Especially during the morning hours.” in the problem statement.
Concluding Comments
Your proposal discusses a very interesting and relevant topic. By expanding the scope and a good proofread for small errors, this will be a very insightful report. Please contact me if you have any further questions
Link to Barton’s proposal: https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-99a-2020wa/2020/10/14/assignment-2-1-formal-report-proposal-3/
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