Unit three was the most challenging unit so far. Crafting the formal report draft was time-consuming and took a lot of effort but, it felt worthwhile once finished. The easiest section to write was the introduction as I have written many introductions for other research reports in different classes. After writing the introduction I moved on to the data section, which took much longer to write. Collecting data through surveys was new and exciting, as I have never used surveys to obtain experimental results. Surprisingly, I obtained a decent sample size of around 25 participants. This was most likely due to the topic of the formal report: A plan to install air conditioning in the chemistry building, being a hot topic in my workplace. In fact, during data collection, many co-workers eagerly approached me to voice their support for my plan, which boosted my morale in writing this report.
The problems outlined in the report are currently affecting my work right now. On July 26, 2022, the temperature reached 29 ℃ causing a massive heat wave within the chemistry building. My whole body was covered in sweat and I was constantly on my feet, moving around. Needless to say, I was extremely uncomfortable that day but I decided to tough it out and continue to work. On the other hand, one of the Ph.D. students in my lab said that he was getting a serious headache from the heat so he made the correct decision to leave early. This interrupted his experiment, so he had to redo it the next day. The threat of global warming is real and is happening now, as seen through my experience on July 26, 2022. This first-hand exposure to the problems caused by a lack of air conditioning has only encouraged me to further refine this formal report.
When writing the conclusion I summarized all the main results of my study and how they relate to the overarching problem. After the summary, I skipped writing a recommendation section since my only recommendation would be to install air conditioning. I thought this would be too short and wrote an expected outcomes section instead, describing the expected outcomes of installing air conditioning in the chemistry building. Later on, I found out that a recommendation section was required as outlined in the instructions but, it was already past the due date. This taught me to always read the instructions very carefully so I don’t miss anything. To summarize the experience of writing the formal report draft in three words: challenging and exciting.
As usual, the peer review process was very helpful in the revision of my formal report. When looking at the peer review that Peter provided, most of his suggestions regard providing descriptions of technical words for non-technical readers. I disagree with this suggestion as the target audience for this formal report is Dr. Ken Macfarlane, who is the Director of Finance and Operations of UBC chemistry as well as a graduate of the Ph.D. program at UBC chemistry. Dr. Macfarlane would certainly know terms such as solvent, hexanes, pentanes, etc. so, there is no need to describe these terms further. Nevertheless, Peter provided a well-crafted report that I will use to help in the revision process.
For this round of peer reviews, I was chosen to peer review Danae, who wrote a great formal report draft on employment problems concerning C Market Coffee. There were a small number of errors that I pointed out in my peer review concerning figure format and grammatical mistakes. Hopefully, the suggestions offered in the peer review will help in her revision.
The term is almost over, time goes by so fast! I am ready to work hard to complete the rest of the course.
Enclosure: Ethan’s formal report draft