LinkedIn Research
The LinkedIn best practices assignment provided me with useful information for expanding my professional presence online. Although I had created a LinkedIn account earlier, I never considered it to be essential and spent little time on it. Through the research I conducted for this assignment, I came to realize that LinkedIn is an excellent platform to build my professional network and find employment. I am now motivated to spend more time on filling out my profile following the direction of my research sources.
In my research, I looked through many sources to find the best information possible. This included blog posts, documents provided by academic institutions, and advice from LinkedIn itself. I found the documents from academic institutions to be the most useful, as they framed their advice with students in mind. As a student with little experience in my field who will be looking for a co-op position, I believe these tips will be relevant in my job search.
Having considered the best practices I researched, there are two main areas that I must focus on to improve my profile. The first is filling out my profile entirely. I am currently missing a summary, profile picture, endorsements, and detailed job history. I would also like to make more posts and establish more connections to expand my network and obtain new opportunities. Overall, I found the process of researching and writing the LinkedIn best practices memo rewarding and useful for improving my LinkedIn profile.
Writing Proposal and Outline
The process of brainstorming an idea and preparing my proposal and outline was difficult. I spent a lot of time thinking over different options and ruling out most of them as inadequate. After having no success for a few days, the idea for creating a report on the check-in procedures at North Delta Recreation Centre came about organically while I was at the gym. I reflected on these thoughts while working out and wrote them down when I got home.
Once I had the idea in mind, I found it challenging to devise a well thought out plan for my proposal and outline. The idea of a 12-to-15-page report felt daunting, but I was able to manage that anxiety by breaking up my work into manageable chunks and constantly revising my ideas. One of the most difficult parts of the process was creating appropriate survey and interview questions. For the survey, to ensure my respondents completed the survey I had to design the least number of questions while extracting as much information as possible. For the interview questions, I had to ensure my questions had a positive tone which the director would feel comfortable responding to with adequate detail.
Having completed the outline and survey/interview questions, I feel much better than I did at the start of the process. However, I do begin to feel overwhelmed with seeing the due dates fast approaching. Thankfully, I have my writing plan to ensure I am progressing at an appropriate pace. The main question I have currently is if I will get enough information from the survey respondents and facility director to create a detailed report. I am hopeful that I will receive quality information, as it will form the basis of my research.
Peer Review
Peer reviewing my partner’s proposal helped me see how my peers have approached the assignment and led me to consider my own report in a different way. My partner had created an excellent proposal that was well organized and complete. Their topic was appropriately narrowed down and focused on one issue. This led me to reflect on my own assignment, which had a broader scope. My partner also raised this point in their review of my work, which I found helpful for improving my proposal. I appreciated their suggestion of making more clear distinctions between the two main points addressed in my report, and I revised my proposal to reflect that. This suggestion also helped me organize my outline with separate sections for each idea, as suggested by my peer.
Having reviewed my partner’s proposal and reading through my writing team’s work, I learned that my writing could be better organized. My group members did an excellent job separating ideas and explaining them with appropriate detail. This helped make the documents easy to read and understand. This led me to reflect on my writing process and consider how I edit my work. Although my writing and organization appeared to be clear in my mind, it was somewhat confusing for my reviewer. I think that going forward I should try to consider my work from different perspectives when reviewing and editing. The role of technical writing is to communicate ideas concisely and effectively, so it is crucial to always consider your audience. This insight will be beneficial for creating a final report which is organized, clear, and approachable for the reader.
Peer Review Link: https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl30198a2022s12/2022/06/29/dales-review-of-harveys-proposal/
Revised Proposal: 301 Harvey Dhaliwal Report Proposal Revised