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.
Kyphosis Technical Definition Revised