Researching for the Draft

Initially, having looked over the course schedule and project description of the formal report for the first time, the task seemed very daunting, with its recommended length saying “12 to 15 pages”.  “Uh oh”, I thought, “how am I going to get enough material for that?”.  But I eventually learned that it was easily doable if the task is broken up step by step.  After brainstorming and deciding on a major problem, it was easy to then brainstorm the solutions to fix that problem.  And once a list of solutions is available, it was straightforward to brainstorm what information is needed to support those recommendations and the methods along with it.  The proposal that we wrote really helped to piece everything together.  Before I knew it, I had 12 pages of content already outlined.

Organizing the Draft

Organizing the formal report was seemingly straightforward.  The textbook had a very convenient formal report example which was used as reference for my draft.  The proposal and report outline we wrote earlier also helped in the preliminary planning of the report structure.  When organizing the data section of the report, splitting it up into small sections, each devoted to their respective survey question, was intuitive and helped the flow of the report.

Writing the Draft

After having the information and data at hand, and the organization of the report all laid out, writing the report itself was seamless.  The writing schedule helped me greatly in managing my time for writing.  I otherwise would have waited until the last minute to start, if not for that.  During writing, I took care to heed the previous lessons and inject the techniques into my report, such as writing with a “you” attitude.

Peer Reviewing a teammate’s Draft

It was very interesting to read about the main problem from Ayaka’s draft about overwork in Japan, since I have always been intrigued about the Japanese work ethic and how work life is like for individuals there.  Her choice in using case studies to deep dive into individuals’ work life balance in addition to survey questions was also an interesting choice.  I couldn’t help but think how useful this strategy would be if used in my own report.  Her recommendations for my report also helped, as I made a few mistakes that I have missed or left out, such as the pagination.  She also pointed out some explanations that were confusing to her, and upon re-reading them myself, I probably wouldn’t have understood them either.

First Draft: 301 Ryan Tso Formal Report Draft