This unit focused on three main areas including: writing with the right attitude, drafting formal reports and reviewing/reflecting on the writing progress moving forward. The last two lessons
Writing with ‘You Attitude’
Learning to write with the ‘You Attitude’ was one of my favourite lessons of the term and is a key takeaway from this class. The memorandum to Evan Crisp and the business letters helped to solidify concepts relating to persuasive and effective writing. These assignments were challenging and forced me to get creative with how I utilized words and phrases to convey a message.
Draft Formal Report
Like with any major research process, the most difficult part is knowing where to start. The research process was relatively straightforward as I had strong starting point and a clear plan of action with regard to collecting data. While I waited for online survey responses to come in, I began the search for journal articles and books that would aid in developing my recommendations for the report. I was disappointed to encounter a lack of formal research into the area of student clubs and how to increase participation rates in mentoring programs. Alas, I turned my focus to the primary data that I had at my disposal.
Unfortunately, I did not provide a strict deadline for survey participants to submit their responses. This provided a challenge as I had to organize a draft report with little very data to work with. Furthermore, it took a while to gain access to past transition reports that I had hoped to review.
Writing the preliminary draft of the formal report was a complicated process. On the one hand, I had planned out the structure of my report ahead of the assignment deadline and ended up saving a significant amount of time. On the other hand, the delay in receiving responses from the survey participants and from the new ACSA executives limited the amount of material that I could engage with.
Peer Review Process
During the peer review process, I continued to build on the skills that I have been developing throughout the term. I approached the assignment with the same attention to detail as usual and focused on specific areas where the reviewee could improve. The addition of headings and subheadings framed my review nicely and made my comments easier to engage with.
I frequently referred back to my own formal report draft as I was reviewing my peer’s work. I was inspired by the reviewee’s attention to the layout, formatting and colour scheme of their report. The inclusion of these elements made the report more eye-catching and acted as a way for the reviewee to showcase their creative side. Truthfully, it did not cross mind to include different font styles and colours to my original draft, but now I am reconsidering.
My draft report has not been reviewed as I write this reflection. However, I am lucky to have teammates that spend a great deal of time on the peer review assignments. The extra set of eyes are always welcome and often catch some notable errors. It is an invaluable experience to have someone comb through your arguments and provide suggestions for improvement.
Conclusion
This unit had many important lessons and I know that my writing is getting better with each day that goes by. Moving forward with the final report, I predict that the process will take longer than expected because the end of the semester is usually a busy time of year for me. In order to better prepare, I have altered the timeline for my writing schedule in order to account for any potential delays.