Through the coop program I started at North Island College, I had already created a LinkedIn profile. This assignment allowed me to take a closer look at the information on my profile and make the profile more robust and up to date. As I already had a LinkedIn profile, I had already made the choice to have a professional social media presence, so this was not a challenge for me or something I needed to think about. While updating my profile and adjusting it to meet the requirements of assignment 2:2, I did struggle with the new purpose of the profile and how I could create an online account, but ensure it did not appear to my employer that I am looking for a new job. My previous profile was to attract potential employers and connect professionally. After doing the research into best practices I realized LinkedIn can also be used as a means of professional networking. This purpose struck a chord with me. Making a thorough profile is difficult in the time frame of assignment 2:2 as I did not have time to get many endorsements or do tests to prove my skills. I was lucky that I already had a well-established group of connections and interests.
Report Proposal and Outline
When I originally set out to write my report proposal the topic focused on the impact of a specific designated smoking area on the Beaufort Childcare facility outdoor play space. As I wrote the proposal, I decided it was too narrow and the proposal morphed into a proposal for North Island College to become a tobacco free campus. I support this goal, but it is a much bigger topic than I planned to take on. I have thought may times since submitting the proposal of requesting to alter my topic and instead address the speeding issue around the Beaufort Children’s Center. This came to a head when I was writing the report outline. I felt like I had two topics within my proposal and that the issue of the Beaufort Childcare Society play area was a sub-issue which was drawing attention away or clouding the main issue. After writing the outline and the progress report I figured out how to make these two topics work together as one. Only after writing the progress report do I feel the formal report is on track and will be a unified report. This taught me to trust the process. As I have worked through it so far, it has work for me, clarifying things I could not previously settle.
Peer Review
In the peer review I wrote for my partner I was reminded that not everyone is as methodical with their writing and self-editing. My partner had many grammar errors, which could have been corrected with a word processing program. Using this technology is not instinctual for everyone and writing this peer review had me reflecting on being in fourth year university when I was in my early twenties. Returning to school as a mature adult has given me confidence but has also made me methodical in checking my format, structure and grammar in my writing. I do still make errors, but unlike in my first degree, I know I make errors and I know these errors affect the overall impression and understanding of my writing.
The peer review process is only as strong as the partner you are assigned. Every student gives this class a different priority in their life and has a varied amount of time they can assign to the class. When matched with someone who gives it equal importance as you do, the process works well and the feedback is valuable. When paired with someone who gives the course a different level of importance than you do, the reviews get challenging. I put a lot of time into the peer review I did for my partner so I was disappointed when I received a review that was brief and appeared to be more a reflection of my peer’s feelings towards my topic than a review to help with my writing. My peer reviewer seemed to fundamentally disagree with my topic and that impacted his ability to provide an unbiased peer review. An example of this is “Although it is undoubtedly true that smoking is a ‘bad habit’ that should be eventually fixed, it is also irresponsible to make campus a place completely free from smoking…I recommend conveying the importance of maintain a healthy student body through a different means.” These statements were repeated in various forms throughout the review. This made it hard for me to find the useful peer editing suggestions in the review as I was responding emotionally to his emotional review. After some time and reflection I was able to re-read the review and find the quite helpful suggestions my partner included, as well at the disdain for my choice of topic.
I also worried I had gone a little too in-depth with grammar corrections in the peer review I provided. I worried that the peer review for my peer would not be appreciated.
Peer Review Process
I find it fascinating to read other students’ perspective on the assignments. We are all given the same criteria, but how we interpret the directions determines what we post. I find I am reading not only my writing team’s posts, but also other groups. It always surprises me to see how different the final product can be, yet there are always common elements. An example is the assignment requiring research into LinkedIn best practices. The lens my peers were viewing the topic from determined where they looked for research and articles. This lens also determined what they selected as best practices. Some chose to focus on industry specific best practices. Others were looking to connect with potential future employers, or to network within their field. And some just met the requirements of the assignment.
The review of the formal report proposal was the first time I read a review and thought “that is the reviewer’s opinion, and I can take it or leave it”. In the past when my writing was questioned, I always felt I needed to make changes because although the meaning was clear to me, it must have been confusing from someone else’s perspective. I felt differently this time as the review was charged with my peer’s personal feelings about my topic. This made it easy for me to disengage with the review and accept the grammatical feedback but leave the rest.