Christine's Blog

Researching & Organizing Process for Formal Report Draft

Researching process is an important part of providing an informative report.

I have done my research by collecting surveys from students in the International Navigator club and online articles related to improving or creating a positive and diverse environment. At first, I was nervous to ask people to participate in the survey since I am an introvert that I don’t like to be the person initiating. Also, I am kind of scared that no one is going to do the survey. However, I was grateful that there are many people who are willing to participate in the survey to help me produce a formal report about improving the positive environment in the International Navigator club. Through this experience, I find myself braver.

Once I collected the primary data from the survey and secondary information from the articles, I started organizing the layout of the formal report. This is the part where I spent most of the time. The overall structure is not hard to follow since this is a formal report that has the formal structure that we must follow. The part that I struggle with is arranging the subheading under the standard formal structure in a logical order. I initially started with bullet points with the ideas that I want to put into each section (introduction, data section, conclusion…etc.) After knowing what I had for each section, I started making mind maps. Using a mind map not only helps me to clarify the relationship between data and problem as well as the possible solution outcomes but also help me to integrate thoughts together to form a more systematic formal report. This helps me to start on my table content. Through this process, I learned that writing a good formal report takes time.

Writing Process

After going through the researching and organizing process, I started writing my first formal report draft. I began with the introduction and spent most of the time structuring my introduction. In this section, I started with the background information about the International Navigators club to inform the potential reader. Following this, I wrote a brief statement of the issues or problems about the potential exclusive environment created by “cliques”. Then, I briefly talked about evaluating the potential issues based on the survey results and the direction of possible feasible solutions. At the end of the introduction, I stated my purpose clearly and concisely.

Next, in the data section, I explain the issues based on the data retrieved from the survey and the solution that can possibly benefit the club members and the club. Usually, this is the part that I find difficult to express with words. However, I did not have that kind of feeling when I am writing my first draft. I think this is due to the previous section that helps me to clear my thoughts and mind so I can fully express myself. The conclusion is the last part that I worked on. I simply summarized the findings, interpretation, and suggestions that I want the audience to get out of this formal report.

After completing the first draft, the stress and anxiety slightly went away since it seems I know what I am doing. This also shows me the importance of the preparing process.

Overall, I am really grateful that I have this opportunity to practice systematic thinking.

Peer Review Process

Before peer reviewing my teammate Dhara’s work, I carefully read through her formal report draft about feasible solutions for a successful paperless transition in CPSC 121. At first, I struggled slightly to understand the purpose of this report. So, I went over her proposal and memo that she wrote previously before I started to make notes and suggestions regarding her formal report draft. I was astonished by her proposed solution to change the exam format to improve students’ test experience for the current online transition. However, on a second review of her draft I realized the purpose of the report wasn’t clearly stated in the introduction and unconcise paragraphs made the draft difficult to understand. Through this peer review process, I learned the importance of being concise, clear, and straight-to-the-point, which can help the audience comprehend better, which allows the message to be delivered more efficiently

Next, I am grateful for the suggestions that Dhara gave me for my report. I learned that putting the relevant figures closer to the text may increase the audience’s fluency in processing or receiving the messages.

Overall, I learned that the text must be catered in every way to enhance and facilitate the understanding of the audience, including in the conciseness of the language and the overall layout and format of the document.

I appreciate the peer review process, this not only helps me to realize my weaknesses in writing but also learn how to objectively evaluate and learn from others’ writing too.

Revised Peer Review of “Feasibility Analysis of Improving Inclusiveness Environment in UBC international Navigator Club”

Formal Report Draft

Research on LinkedIn

LinkedIn has become a powerful platform for job hunting, skill learning etc. I have heard about this platform from many others, and I know people often use social media or online platforms to find a job or build a relationship. However, I did not realize there were so many tools and techniques to help you succeed in the online workplace and improve your personal profile or resume. Doing research on LinkedIn has helped me learn how to use this platform and helped me develop an awareness of the purpose of such sites and express my findings concisely in my own words.

Report Proposal and outline

The purpose of writing the report proposal and outline is to prepare for writing the formal report. Therefore, beginning with a proposed research design and proposal for “Improving the environment of International Navigator Club,” helped me take a structured approach and gave a clear direction in proceeding with further research for this semester. However, I found it challenging to keep my language concise, and I struggled to resolve this. As a result, I researched online for strategies to make my writing more concise, which helped simplify my solution section. In addition, I also conducted online research to ensure that my solution was ethical and workable.

Peer Review on Research Proposal

First, it was my pleasure to review Dhara’s work to see what I can learn and improve on based on her writing. I made notes and comments while reading through her assignment and compared Dhara’s assignment to my own, which helped me write the peer review later. For example, I realized that my research proposal format was slightly different from hers. When Dr. Paterson reminded me that I followed the wrong page of the example given, I changed it immediately. Furthermore, the feedback from Dhara pointed out some of my grammatical errors and issues with conciseness. This helped me go back to the research proposal and make some changes to be more concise. In conclusion, the peer review section allowed me to recognize my weaknesses and improve on them.

Formal Report Process

The formal report process section helped me keep track of my formal report schedule on the survey. I think this was the most challenging part among the others. I needed to maintain an awareness of upcoming deadlines and progress milestones. In this section, I needed to draw conclusions and summarize the information presented in previous sections. Moreover, another tricky part of the process was working on my survey questions. In the beginning, I thought making the survey questions would be easy, just like how we might ask questions during lectures or with friends. However, the survey questions include an introduction, and the questions also needed to meet research ethic criteria, which I found challenging. A specific problem I encountered was that I tended to ask leading questions, biasing the participant to answer the way I wanted. In order to fulfill ethical requirements, I revised my questions over and over again. Overall, the formal report process helped me plan out the research progress.

Overall, I think unit 2 gave me the practice of being more organized and systematic in writing a formal report. I believe after this practice, I will be able to be more concise, structured and clear in my writing.

https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-99c-2021wc/2022/02/19/peer-review-of-research-proposal-by-christine-hsiao/

https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-99c-2021wc/2022/02/15/research-proposal-for-a-formal-report-2/

https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-99c-2021wc/2022/03/01/repost-research-proposal-proposal-of-improvement-inclusiveness-environment-in-ubc-international-navigator-club/

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.

Revised Definition of “Deductible”

Revised Peer Review on Definition of “Deductible”