Writing the first draft of the Technical definition
In the first unit of the ENGL 301 course, the class was assigned to write three definitions of a complex term for non-technical readers as practice. The guideline stated that the term we choose should align with our interest or experience, so with my experience in the airsoft industry, I decided to go with the complex airsoft term—gas blowback (GBB). To define our chosen complex term to non-technical readers, we were given instructions to use three different definitions to help non-technical readers understand technical terms, such as parenthetical, sentence, and expanded definition. In addition to having three definitions, the expanded definition requires four different strategies to further elaborate the complex term, with visuals as mandatory. Fortunately, I have accumulated experience in writing strategies for the expanded definition because it is similar to the requirements in my previous job as an editor in the airsoft industry. However, I have never learned the proper terms for the expanded strategies I could utilize. Thus, with new knowledge, I picked the ones I think would be the most suitable for explaining the complex term practically by first introducing its mechanism and principle, then a visual representing the inside structure for referencing. The three definitions each serve their own purpose in helping non-technical readers understand complex terms by providing clarity, background information, and features. In conclusion, I have learned about different ways of defining a complex term that could be helpful in the future if I need to explain a complex term to a non-technical audience.
Peer Review Process
For this assignment, I was given a chance to team up with one of my writing team members (Salma) to complete a peer review, where I will review their draft and provide criticism and suggestions for improvements, and vice versa. Upon reviewing my fellow team member’s work, I was enlightened by their unique writing style and tone as it was professional, friendly, and informative, giving me ideas to improve my own writing. I especially liked Salm’s use of a video thumbnail as a figure, as it doubles as a link to the video itself, giving more options to interested readers to better understand the term. In addition to the figure, her in-depth analysis of parts gave many details that brilliantly explained the complex term Cultural Capital by splitting it into three aspects for better understanding, making it very non-technical reader-friendly. However, as impressive as Salma’s work is, minor issues could be improved for future reference. Such as bolding the headlines and minor clarity issues in writing. Similarly, the feedback from Salma also contains clarity issues, highlighting the importance of peer review or editing as there could always be mistakes we missed when we should not have—encouraging us to double-check for basic mistakes by proofreading it more carefully or thinking about different aspects in the shoes of an audience.
Revision Process
After receiving and giving feedback from the peer review stage, the class is asked to revise their three definitions. The feedback from Salma reminds me of what words mean or their intention. For example, Salma suggested that I should change the phrase “general public” in my introduction as my target audience would be specific instead of the population as a whole, and I agreed; it was a misphrase on my part, and so I immediately corrected it along with other suggestion such as word phrase consistency and capitalization. Again, small mistakes could have been avoided in the first place, but I still made them. However, with the revising process, I can avoid the same mistake next time by paying more attention to word phrasing and consistency. Lastly, the peer review process has been a unique experience, as partnering up with my writing team member and providing feedback to each other will definitely help us improve our writing.
Definition exercise: https://blogs.ubc.ca/garethyuen301/my-best-works/definition/
Peer review: https://blogs.ubc.ca/garethyuen301/my-best-works/peer-review-of-the-definition-assignment/