Unit 3 of ENGL301 consists of two major topics regarding the “You” attitude and construction of the formal report. I found the “You” attitude writing style very interesting as this was my first exposure to writing techniques used for written communication. When writing emails, I rarely consider writing in a way that would be comfortable for my reader. The “You” Attitude assignment made me realize that using “I” and “we” to begin sentences is very forceful and changes how the reader perceives the rest of the email. Two emails containing the same information may be positively or negatively received by the reader based on the writing style. With this in mind, I discovered that many of my seemingly well-thought out sentences are considered offensive by the definitions of “you” attitude writing style. Another valuable tip I learned is to avoid using negative words by replacing them with more neutral and factual words. Additionally, if I am in a situation in which the usage of negative words is unavoidable, selecting euphemisms or the least intense synonyms will be a good idea.
The second portion of the unit taught us how to build up a formal report step by step. We had to compose our own surveys and interview questions to collect research data. I also planned a progress timeline to keep me on track towards the final report. I really enjoyed the process of interviewing the executives of the targeted organization. It gave me the opportunity to see things from their point of view and understand the organization’s limitations. After incorporating my data into a formal report, we were asked to peer review each other’s reports. We were also asked to peer review our teammate’s draft report. Once again, I was surprised at how everyone received the same assignments but had such different formal reports in terms of the sort of information covered and layouts. After looking at their reports and receiving feedback, I realized that there were more ways that I can make my report even more well-rounded.