In Unit 3, we were tasked with writing our first formal report draft and a peer review of a fellow group member’s formal report draft. This unit was intended for us students to continue practicing our writing strategies and professional editing through our formal report draft and peer reviews. We also furthered our professional writing by writing an email memo to Evan Crisp, a fellow student who needed our help to adopt the “You-Attitude” into his professional email writing. This would help us in our final formal report that will be finished by the end of the course.
Email Memo to Evan Crisp
For assignment 3.1, we were assigned to write a list to our classmate Evan Crisp on how to use the “You Attitude” when writing professional emails to a professor about joining a full class. We were tasked to create a list of what to do that might help Evan, such as avoiding the use of imperative verbs and language and using a more professional tone and a more structured email. After writing this email for Evan, it taught me about the use of the “You Attitude” as well. Reviewing the “You Attitude” handout and reading over the textbook, I am now conscious of the “You Attitude” in my email writing. I will use this knowledge in future professional writing.
Formal Report Draft
For assignment 3.2, we were assigned to upload our first formal report draft. The draft needed to include a working title page and title, table of contents, introduction, body, and conclusion. The draft also required at least two illustrations we plan to use for the final formal report and any other sources used in the report. This process was meant to help us analyze our data and continue our progress for our formal report. First, I finished the last bits of my survey, which included 33 participants. This participant pool was smaller than I had hoped, but because the survey was voluntary, I was not expecting to have a number past the 100s. The hardest part of this formal report draft was turning the data into graphs and tables that could be easily understood by whoever will be reading the final report. I started working from the title down to the conclusion and list of recommendations in order. I managed to find feasible solutions to the Cactus Club Cafe wait times with the help of the surveys that I distributed, and implementing an online system would be most beneficial to customers and employees. This assignment allowed me to focus on analyzing my data, creating visuals for the data, and writing general ideas of what I want to include in my final formal report.
Peer Review Process
For assignment 3.3, we were assigned to write a peer review for a group member. I had the honour of writing a review for Cheka. I provided constructive and positive criticism to help improve their formal report. Cheka’s report on “How to Better Support Note-Takers to Improve Learning Experience for Students at UBC” was well written and had good organization. I could only provide grammatical support and feedback about the sample size of their survey. We both had the same input for each other’s report, which made it easier to understand the feedback provided. Reading Cheka’s formal report draft also gave me some ideas about reorganizing my formal report to improve it. For example, the placement of Cheka’s data visuals is neatly organized at the top of each page for the data section. Cheka then labels each illustration underneath, starts explaining the data, and continues this for all of the illustrations. I found this to be visually appealing and easier to understand the data presented, so I will bring this back to my formal report. Cheka also provided me with positive criticism that I will be using in my final draft. This assignment allowed me to look at a new writing perspective and give positive feedback to a classmate.
Attached: ENG 301 Carman Chu Formal Report Draft