Putting together my formal report draft was a challenging but rewarding experience. Although I have written many reports during my university degree, the formal report is unlike any of the reports I have written before. Up until this point, the reports I have written have either involved literature reviews using the library and internet or reporting on laboratory results. The formal report, however, involved carefully planning real world research to investigate a problem in an organization or place, and using the results to develop realistic solutions. I enjoyed working on the issue of the overcrowded nature of UBC’s fitness facility, a problem I have noticed since I first arrived at the university.
The most challenging part of the process for me was organizing and conducting a primary research plan. It was important to ensure that observations were systematic, accurate, and detailed. In addition, it was important that the surveys and interviews I conducted were thorough in the sense that they provide enough information to write a 12-15 page report, but that they were not too time consuming for the people giving up their time to take them. Once my data was collected, I spent a significant amount of time organizing and analyzing it before writing the report, so the actual writing was easier and took less time than expected. I was always conscious to ensure that my writing was based on the data and not biased towards ideas I had formed before analyzing the data.
I am glad I had previous practice at writing peer reviews, as this was the most challenging one yet. This is not only because of the length and complexity of the document, but also because the formal report is worth a significant portion of our grade so I wanted to be sure I gave through and meaningful feedback to Nicolas’s work. I found that doing an initial read through of the entire document was useful before analyzing each section in detail. One of the aspects of Nicolas’s work that impressed me was the way he broke up longer sections into subsections. I found this enhanced the readability, and is something I will be implementing when I revise my report.