Writing the First Draft of Technical Definition
In this assignment, we were asked to explain a term to a specific group of audiences in a particular situation. In the beginning, I find it challenging to find a term to start. In the end, I chose “deductible,” a word that happened to be asked the most when working in the pharmacy. Then, I have to define the audience and visualize what they expect to hear from me. To make the reading more pleasant for the audiences, I learned how to use three different types of definitions: parenthetical, sentence, and expanded definition, and included them in the assignment. These three types of definitions have different levels of information. For example, the expanded definition may have more details and include the other aspects that the technical writer considers the audience may want to know after reading through the parenthetical and sentence definition. Therefore, when I was writing the expanded definition, I listed many questions for the audience and apply into the methods of the expanded definition I learned from the textbook. Through this process, I am constantly thinking, learning and challenging myself to make things easier and more understandable for the audience that I am presenting to.
Peer Review Process
First, It is my pleasure to review Dhara’s work to see what she could improve and what she did well on this assignment that I can learn from. Before I started peer-reviewing, I went over the example that Dr. Paterson provided and the requirement of the assignment again. Then, I read through her assignment and wrote notes while reading it. Writing notes down helps me have a specific clue to support my suggestions. For instance, I think she could work on the tone and use an active voice instead of having a passive voice most of the time. One of the sentences that I highlight is “A common example of an algorithm is a cake recipe, where a sequence of steps is followed to accomplish the task of baking a cake.” The rewrite sample I provided is ” A cake recipe is a typical example of an algorithm; making cakes takes a sequence of steps.” Overall, the peer review process is beneficial; it allows us to improve our editing skills; revise our imperfect draft.
Revision Process
After peer-reviewing Dhara’s work, I have some ideas for revising my assignment. For instance, I should include one more method into my expanded defintion and briefly explain the visual that presents the definition. However, while reading through the comments from Dhara, she thinks my expanded definition is stray from the purpose of the assignment. Therefore, I reference the examples of the three definitions from the textbook and reconsider my choice of methods for an expanded definition. Overall, the peer review session opened my eye to see the weakness that helps me improve my writing and I believe through this assignment my technical writing skill has improved. Looking forward to more practice.