In the third unit of this English Technical Writing course, we were tasked to write a formal report draft. This included doing research relevant to our initial proposals, organizing and analyzing information and data, and in my case, distributing surveys through the UBC survey tool and asking interview questions to my colleagues at the dental department of Interior Health. I found this assignment to be quite challenging and upon hindsight, following the writing outline that was included in my initial formal report proposal would have been a beneficial guideline.
I found that data collection was one of the most challenging aspects in creating my formal report draft. I was fortunate enough to have a connection that works at a daycare, which allowed me to fulfill my survey portion of the data. Conversely, getting in touch with all of the dental staff in my department proved to be very challenging as a result of everyone’s differing schedules. Not to mention the recent mudslides in British Columbia that left some of my colleagues stranded on the island or on the coast. As a result, I omitted the interview data portion of my formal report draft until I could collect all of the interview responses, which also affected my conclusion/recommendations. As of now, I believe that I have the basic framework for my formal report but hopefully after I can collect of the interview responses, I will be able to write a more complete and cohesive formal report.
As for the peer review portion of this unit, I found that this activity was very informative and eye-opening. Fortunately, my peer is also a dental hygienist, so I had brief idea of her chosen topic and vice versa. I also valued her opinion because we both work in the same professional field. Through the peer review process, I am able to reflect upon my own writing technique. I am able to note certain strengths and weaknesses in my peer’s work, and apply their strengths into my own writing. And with her feedback, I noticed that there are still aspects of my writing and formatting that I need to work on and develop. Overall, the process has broadened my outlook on writing techniques by giving me exposure to differing opinions and different writing styles.