Unit 2 Reflection

LinkedIn Research

I have had a LinkedIn account for near a decade, having updated it recently for my upcoming work term.  Despite that, there were a lot of features of LinkedIn I never knew about, only having discovered them after researching for the LinkedIn assignment.  I never realized I could have recommendations posted directly in my profile, or that there were groups I could join to better improve my networking.  The articles also stressed deeply about the power and usefulness of LinkedIn as a networking tool. Perhaps I should update my profile even further and actually start becoming more active on it to improve my chances of getting a job!

Formal Report Proposal and Outline

It was difficult to brainstorm ideas for the formal report, even when having worked in an organization for six years.  Sure, there were a lot of procedures that I didn’t enjoy, but nothing that I can expand to 12 to 15 pages of writing.  Many moments and scratched ideas later, it came as a relief when I finally found the perfect topic; one that I can actually compress into 12 to 15 pages.  Once the hard part was over, the rest of the pieces fell into place.  Figuring out the solution to the problem was straight forward.  Deciding what information I needed to support my solution laid the foundation of my outline, methodology, report goals, and consequently the meat of the formal report.  Now it is just a matter of taking action.

Formal Report Progress

The work ahead in the coming month seems very packed, but arguably still doable.  Thankfully, the progress report we did, as well as the writing schedule we drafted, helps significantly in planning out my time; turning a daunting task into smaller achievable goals.

Proposal Peer Review

For this unit’s peer review, I found it difficult to provide suggestions to the writer since their proposal was well done, and I also could not find any grammatical or technical errors.  But, having 6 years experience in a working environment helped me approach the proposal in a more business mindset; scrutiny and all.  Since I knew first hand how hard it is to convince organizations to spend money, I gave them suggestions on how to make their solution and argument more convincing in order to get the funding they need for the research.  In regards to their peer review of my proposal, it was really helpful having a second pair of eyes to catch all of the tiny mistakes I easily missed, especially grammatical and technical errors.  Also, since they are unfamiliar with my topic, it was refreshing to see how much detail I left out because I knew the material I was writing and glanced over any details that I thought were obvious.  Like any creative piece, I feel my writing can never be perfect, but it can always be indefinitely improved; and having help in that regard is always a blessing.

My revised proposal: https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-98a-2021sa/2021/06/26/301-ryan-tso-formal-report-proposal-revised/
Peer review of my proposal: https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-98a-2021sa/2021/06/17/assignment-21-peer-review-for-ryans-formal-report-proposal/ 
Report Outline: https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-98a-2021sa/2021/06/25/301-ryan-tso-formal-report-outline/

I am an undergraduate student at UBC engaged in a technical writing project.  The purpose of this survey is to obtain primary data for an analysis and investigation that aims to provide recommendations for improving the sustainable sourcing of raw ingredients in health supplement manufacturers, namely Organika Health Products Inc. The final formal report will be addressed to the CEO and COO of Organika Health Products Inc.  The data I gather from this survey will serve the ultimate purpose of providing recommendations to health supplement manufacturers for using more sustainable and ethical choices of ingredients. The survey contains 8 multiple-choice questions, and it should take about 5 minutes of your time. Your responses are voluntary and anonymous. Thank you, I appreciate your generous participation in my survey.

How often do you purchase health supplements or vitamins? (Count each product as one)

1. 8+ per month
2. 5-7 per month
3. 3-4 per month
4. 1-2 per month
5. I do not purchase any health supplements or vitamins.

Where do you usually purchase your health supplements or vitamins?

1. Supermarkets
2. Speciality vitamin and supplement stores
3. Online
4. Other
5. N/A

When purchasing health supplements or vitamins, what factors are important in your decision making? Order from most important to least important.  Leave out if not important at all.

1. Price
2. Brand
3. Word of mouth / recommendations
4. Ingredient composition (for allergenic reasons or other)
5. Source country
6. Certification logos on the label
7. N/A

How important to you is the country of origin where the health supplements and vitamins or their ingredients are made from?

1. Very Important
2. Important
3. Somewhat Important
4. Not very important
5. Not important at all

How important to you is the treatment of animals from where the health supplements and vitamins or their ingredients are made from?

1. Very Important
2. Important
3. Somewhat Important
4. Not very important
5. Not important at all

How often do you inquire or look up the information on ingredient sources for your health supplements and vitamins?

1. Every time
2. For most of the supplements I buy
3. For some of the supplements I buy
4. Never

If you inquire or look up the information on ingredient sources, how often did you get the information you sought?

1. Every time
2. Most of the time
3. Some of the time
4. Barely any time
5. Never
6. N/A

Given the choice between a supplement product ‘Supplement A’, and the same supplement product ‘Supplement B’ but that is known to be 100% sourced and made from sustainable or local sources, and assuming that Supplement A is $20 and that your default choice is Supplement B, at what price will deter you to opt for Supplement A over Supplement B?

1. $21 – $22
2. $23 – $24
3. $25 – $26
4. $27 – $29
5. $30+

Writing the Definition

I found the process of writing the definitions pretty straight forward.  It was a matter of reading the assignment requirements and structuring my writing to meet those specifications.  Since I already have adequate knowledge on the term, I brainstormed the information I needed to put in the definition and used research to fill out any missing information I had.  Using my prior experience as a quality control supervisor who had to train new employees, I tried as best I could to make sure the information I put down was intuitive and easy to follow for readers who are not familiar with the topic. I placed myself in a new employee’s shoes and began to write my definition based on that.  Then, filling in the definition was straight forward since I had the information as well as the frame of reference.

The Peer Review Process

After having read my partner’s definition, I found it interesting to witness the differences in writing style and thinking process compared to mine.  For example, she organized her definition in equally important sub parts, while I structured mine more like a paragraphed web article.  Reading through it, I found aspects that made me raise my brow, but there was technically nothing wrong with it, which made me realize that my own writing style and thinking processes was injecting a bit of bias.  I also assumed she, too, wrote her definition as someone knowledgeable on the term trying to place themselves in the shoes of people who are unfamiliar.  And as someone reading it in the perspective of someone unfamiliar, I found a few passages that confused me, which was both a good opportunity to provide recommendation as well as a reflection that my own definition might confuse others the same way.  While reviewing, I also found aspects of her paper that could benefit my own definition, such as better organizational headings and more details on the specific components of the term.

The Revision Process

After having read my partner’s peer review, I realized this was written from the perspective of someone who actually isn’t familiar with the subject, and not just from the perspective of an imaginary person I made up.  Some descriptions that I wrote that I felt was intuitive to myself turned out not to be intuitive for my partner, and needed to be explained in further detail to clear the confusion.  She pointed out that there was no explanation for each letter in the term HACCP.  At first, that statement confused me; because to me, it was pretty straight forward.  But I looked into it, and realized that her confusion was completely justified.  I did not mention anywhere about the meaning of the terms within the term.  And so, I improved my definition by taking her recommendation into account and adding more clarification on the inner terms.  The set of fresh eyes from someone with a completely different writing style was very beneficial, as they can see the faults that my adjusted eyes self-corrected for.  Similar to painting art, the faults of the painting are not apparent when they appear gradually, but when someone is seeing the painting for the first time all at once, all the faults are very obvious.

Links

Definition: https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-98a-2021sa/2021/06/01/ryan-tso-assignment-1-3/

Peer Review: https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-98a-2021sa/2021/06/04/assignment-13-peer-review-for-ryans-definition-for-haccp/

Revised Definition: https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-98a-2021sa/2021/06/06/ryan-tso-assignment-1-3-three-definitions-revised/