Hello 301;
I have just this moment completed all my evaluations for Unit One. If you have any questions about my comments, please do not hesitate to ask. I am always happy to review your work with you.
I will pass the weekend reading and commenting on your Progress Reports to ensure everyone is on the right track; especially with your survey and interview questions. You will want to begin collecting that data for your reports asap.
Here is an example of an excellent Reflection:
Unit 1 Reflection
Posted on September 19, 2014 | Leave a comment
Unfortunately I made a couple spelling/grammar mistakes in my assignment. Luckily, my peer reviewer, spotted them and made me aware. I was then able to edit my document to clear up my errors. This strongly reinforced the necessity to proof read very carefully. I had of course read over my work but was so ‘close’, so to speak, to the writing that I did not notice my errors. In the future, when possible, I will have someone else look over my work before submitting it. Jeremy also pointed out another shortcoming in my document which is very common in technical writing. With lots of experience in my discipline (political science), it did not occur to me that someone may not be familiar with the term “co-option”. In short, I tried to define a complex term with language that is also complex – or at least not necessarily familiar to those without a political science background. This is a very easy trap to fall into, since we are so familiar with our own discipline.
Another thing I learned about my writing from this unit is how helpful it can be to mentally prepare the reader for what they are about to read. Jeremy’s document did a very good job of doing this and I will definitely keep that in mind in my future writing endeavors. By painting a mental picture of the setting and situation in which he defined the term ‘stack’, Jeremy really put me in the right headspace before reading his piece. That is something that never occurred to me but was definitely useful.
Overall I am very pleased about the first unit of our course. It has got me thinking about writing in a completely different way. There is an element to technical writing aside from simply sounding professional. I am looking forward to bettering this skill throughout the rest of the course.
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