Huy Nguyen

Throughout the ENGL 301 course, I learned many valuable techniques in order to enhance my technical writing skills.  My abilities to write to an audience in a professional manner has improve immensely and I am more aware of my writing and style communication.  The peer reviews were an excellent component in this course and valuable in helping me identify some of my recurring mistakes and weaknesses. For example, I have a tendency to use extremely long sentences and have unnecessary words in my writing.  I may have picked up this bad habit from writing courses that required a quota for the word count and wrote my ideas without being concise.  The peer review component helped me realize this weakness and allowed me to correct the habit in my writing.  This also gave me the opportunity to analyze my peers’ writing and identify common mistakes in their writing as well.  This course was practical and I feel that the knowledge I have gained through writing the different documents will be useful in any professional setting.

As a working profession and student, these skills will be extremely valuable in networking and building my career.  I have gained much more confidence in my ability to professionally express myself in a friendly tone.  Applying the valuable skills I learned throughout the course will still be a learning experience.  The process of writing and learning how to communicate effectively takes time to develop.  Even though I’m more confident with my skills, I feel that there is always room for improvement.

This course has taught me that writing is a process.  It is one that I will continue to develop far into my professional career.

Reflection

This is my first time creating a Web Folio and it has been a rewarding experience for me.  This project has given me the opportunity to showcase my personal work and present myself to the world as a professional.  The knowledge and experience I have gained from completing this project can assist me in pursuing my future career.  This process has allowed me to tap into the creative qualities of who I am, something I have suppress in much of my learning.  Creating this blog is somewhat like creating my LinkedIn profile;  I spent time learning how to make modifications to the pages and expanding on my technological skills, while also tweaking some of the visuals and text to fit my personal style.

Maintaining professionalism and a friendly tone of voice was an important part of creating this blog and something that I kept in the back of my mind as I worked through each page.  In order to attract like minded professionals, maintaining a friendly and professional tone is key in order to keep people engaged.  This component in writing was emphasized in the technical writing course, which has helped me immensely in creating the proper tone for my Web Folio.

I am happy with the end product of this web folio and I find that the visual appearance suits my simple nature.  I want this page to be an extension of who I am and feel that I have accomplished that with my Web folio.

For Unit Three, we learned about how to write with a “You-attitude”. These skills were developed in a memorandum, complaint letters, and as part of our formal report.  The exercises and peer reviews have improved my writing skills and provided me with a standard for writing in the professional world.  These skills were applied to my formal draft and was fundamental in the organization and writing of the formal draft.  Aside from developing my technical writing skills, I learned how important punctuality is when working in a group setting.  

I wrote my research proposal on the feasibility of emailing exercises programs to clients in active rehabilitation.  The process for writing my formal report draft included topic research, creating surveys, and writing the report.  The most challenging part of my draft was creating the survey and collecting data to support my venture.   I was careful with the questions I asked and maintained my focus on the objective of my report.  I provided surveys to the clients at my clinic and within a span of a week had more responses than I expected.  Even though I had only 28 responses, I felt that it was substantial enough explain to the target audience my proposed solution.  Researching was somewhat difficult and I’m still in the process of looking for literature to support my idea.  Once I was organized, I began writing my draft and organizing the sections with the proper information.  This formal report is extensive and I had made sure that I was concise in conveying my point.  Even though I had the data I needed,  I still have a long way to go in order to complete this project.  Right now, I feel like I’m on the right track to getting there.

Peer reviewing my partner’s letters and research proposal continues to benefit my writing.  I noticed that I am better at finding mistakes in my writing after analyzing another paper.  The “You-Attitude” approach to writing was great in helping me create a more friendly tone in my writing, without resonating negativity or insulting the reader.  I became more accustomed to this form of writing and feel comfortable in using this style in any type of composition. Unfortunately, my review partner has yet to examine my paper and I’m still awaiting his feedback on my work.  This has happened to me before in the past in this course and I’m starting to see how a small delay can affect people when working in a group setting.  That’s why it’s important to be punctual with the assignments and I always make sure I’m well organized so that my work is submitted in a timely manner.  Regardless, I applied some of the feedback I gave to my writing partner’s draft onto my own report.  It’s interesting how I can make the same errors I detect on my partner’s paper.  Again, reviewing my own paper after looking at someone else’s helps me with self-editing.  I looking forward to receiving my feedback because it will vastly improve the quality of my paper.  There’s still a few weeks before the deadline, which leaves plenty of time to enhance my report.

My technical writing skills are continuing to improve and I have added the “You-attitude” writing style to my repertoire.  Being organized was key in completing my draft report and having a timeline for the assignment helped with my punctuality.  I’m hoping to receive my review soon so that I can apply some of the feedback to my work.  I feel strong with the “You-attitude” writing style and looking forward to complete my final report and the process creating an application package.  My confidence in technique writing has improved substantially and I will be incorporating these skills towards the final projects of this class.

For unit 2, we began to work on two major components of the course: The Application Package and the Formal report.  Part of this work requires us to create our own professional profile using LinkedIn and brainstorm ideas for the topic investigation of our formal report.  Both these activities gave me the opportunity to strengthen my writing ability and reflect on my strengths and weaknesses as a working professional.  Prior to this course, I never accessed LinkedIn nor did I think about creating my own profile.  Once I was exposed to it,  I realized it’s effectiveness in organizing one’s professional profile.  I especially enjoyed creating my own personal resume online and displaying my experiences to the professional world. During the process, I learned how to utilize the tools of LinkedIn to professionally present myself and use LinkedIn as a networking opportunity.  After creating a skeleton of my profile, I spent a few days trying to enhance my LinkedIn profile by analyzing other people’s profile. Unfortunately, my partner was unable to review my profile due to illness, so I took it upon myself to critique my own profile by comparing it to others.  The assignment of LinkedIn Best Practices augmented my profile further when researching information from online resources.  I completed a review of my partner’s LinkedIn profile using the template from the textbook, but I did not benefit from viewing his profile because it was incomplete.  Overall, my experience creating a professional social media network was great and I wished I had done this sooner.  This assignment was beneficial and I believe creating my own personal profile will increase future opportunities for my career.

The process of brainstorming and planning  for my research proposal was challenging.  The assignment required us to investigate and recommend an action plan on the inefficiencies in a public setting. The brainstorming of the topic required some thought and I wanted to make there was enough depth from my investigation to cover my analysis.  After much deliberation, I chose a topic I’m involved in at work (feasibility of emailing exercises).  Once I chosen my topic, creating the proposal did not take much time  due to my background in Kinesiology.  Even though I created an outline of my research proposal, obstacles may occur once I commence my research.  I am relying on my organizational and time management skills to prevent any difficulties when putting together this project.  I am happy with my progress report and will incorporate more details to my outline as I continue to work on the project.  My confidence level is high and I hope to meet and even exceed the expectations of this assignment.

The peer review of my partner’s proposal continues to be a great learning experience.  My focus in the review was to maintain the balance between a friendly and professional tone when critiquing other people’s work.  This feedback was given on my previous peer review and I want continue enhancing my skills in evaluating other people’s work.  When I reviewed my partner’s proposal, I did not find many errors in his work.  I can see my team’s writing is improving, which doesn’t surprise me because of the feedback we all provide for each other.  My peer reviewer suggested revising my introduction to not sound repetitive.  I took his advice and made modifications, as I reread my formal report.  After editing my introduction, I removed the component making it sound less redundant.  When reading my report again, the revision sounded much better.  I also kept in mind the writing suggestions Dr. Paterson gave on my evaluation, especially eliminating unnecessary words, making my statements concise.  Adopting these changes also made the report easier to read and understand.  I feel that my writing is gradually improving and find myself more mindful when writing report and reviews.  

As I continue with the course, I’m starting to feel more comfortable with my technical writing skills.  The task given for this unit will prepare me well for the upcoming projects and assignments.  Creating a memo with the timetable of our research report will keep me organized as I continue with the project.  The LinkedIn profile has given me the opportunity to review my personal resume and will be helpful as I continue assembling my application package.  Peer reviews are important in writing and if there were none in the course, I feel that my writing would not be at this caliber.  I am starting to understand that writing is a process and that peer reviews are the key component in establishing these skills. Now I am taking more time to improve my technical writing skills and I will continue to develop my writing skills into the next unit. Overall, I’m enhancing my writing skills and feel more confident as I continue to work through the course.  

301 Huy Nguyen’s Revised Formal Report Proposal

Peer Review of Huy Nguyen’s Formal Report Proposal

For this assignment , I chose to define the term “Kyphosis” for a population who are unfamiliar with this term.  We were required to define our term in three different ways: parenthetical, sentence, and expanded definition.  While doing the assignment, I had to make sure that there were not any jargon and utilize proper words for easy comprehension.  I carefully provided sufficient information so that readers would not have any questions when introduced to the term.  The biggest challenge was having to remember that my audience may have never heard of the term “Kyphosis”.  Much of my experience with writing stems from lab reports and scientific papers, where I assumed that the readers would have knowledge within the field.  Changing my mindset when writing this paper gave me much insight on how others view my writing.  I now understand how to write an article that they have no prior knowledge about, while supplying the right amount of information to ensure understanding.  

My peer review team member William Ting assisted me by analyzing my article and also providing a well written definition of “Venture Capital” for me to critique. When reviewing William’s writing, I made some suggestions on modifying his content so that they would be more relevant to his definition.  When writing the report on his definitions, I tried to be as critical about his work as I could while maintaining a high level of professionalism.  This was very challenging because I did not want to come across as offensive when making my critiques.  I found that providing feedback in this format allowed me to be very systematic when looking over his writing and has taught me to be more efficient in my analysis.  The analysis not only benefited his work, but also helped me when I re-evaluated my work. My perspective changed after looking at Will’s definitions and allowed me to see some of the flaws in my writing, some which are similar to the corrections I made in William’s writing.  Making changes to my work from the peer reviews made my writing better and critiquing other papers assisted me when I re-evaluated my paper.

The peer review on my definitions were extremely helpful and made me understand how people view my writing without prior knowledge to the topic. During my self editing, I provided some more relevant details about “Kyphosis” so that people would be able to grasp the whole picture when reading my definitions.  I re-structured some of my paragraphs so that the sequence would flow better and transition smoother for better understanding. I re-did my citations and provided a capture for the visuals as well.  Overall, I felt that the feedback given to me and critiques I provided to Will strengthened my technical writing skills and shown me a deeper understanding of how to write to a specific audience.

Peer Review Assignment 1

Kyphosis Technical Definition Revised

January 15th 2106
6888 Canada Way
Burnaby, BC V5E3R4

English 301 99C
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC

Dear English 301 Team,

Please consider my application to join your professional writing team.  I would love to provide my skills and personal expertise as a dynamic member of your group.  I have completed my Bachelor’s degree in Science and have been working in the profession field for three years now, providing me with much experience in both the academic and occupational setting.  My job requires me to send professional emails to my clients and keeps me in constant communication with people whom I work with.  My knowledge and experience in writing and communication within the professional field will be valuable asset to your team.

My interest lies in the field of active rehabilitation, providing personal assessments and programs for clients with a variety of injuries.  I’m currently a Registered Kinesiologist working at Lynn Valley Physiotherapy, working with clients through a variety of modalities for their treatment.  When providing treatment services, we are expected to keep connected with our clients in a professional manner, whether it is by phone or by email.  When designing the treatment programs, we are also expected to create their plan in an organized manner and one which can be easily followed and understood.  My experience at work has allowed me to hone my skills in writing coherently and professionally.  My academic work also reflects on my strong writing background, as I have received high grades in writing courses throughout my university career.

I come from a scientific background where much of the writing contains information and adheres to structured formats.  Therefore I am not very familiar when creativity is involved with writing, such as those in stories and literature.  Recently, I have taken courses in stylistics to help improve my understanding of writing in stories, prose and poetry, so that I can increase my knowledge with this form of writing. Working with a multi-disciplinary team at my clinic has taught me to work efficiently with my co-workers.  I also mentor and train students and volunteers in our clinics, working with them as they learn the profession.  I hope to use my knowledge and skills with the team, to provide a positive environment where we can all learn from each other through our diverse expertise.

I feel that my learning philosophy reflects the type of career I have chosen to pursue and the type of work I’m in.  I have always believed that experience is very important in learning and physically exposing yourself to the elements is the best way to know exactly what you are up against.  When it comes to problem solving, I always try to be logical, using reason along with personal experience to help reach solutions.

I’m looking forward to being a part of your team.  With my skills and experience, I believe I will make a positive impact towards the professional writing team. Please feel free to contact me via email at hnn@live.ca.

Thank you very much for this opportunity.

Sincerely,

Huy Nguyen

301 Huy Nguyen Application Letter

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