In unit 2, we started work on our two major projects for the course: the Formal Report and the Application Package. These will be a major portion of the final grade, so getting them right from the start is crucial. This unit was an exercise in time management, collaboration, and developing my curriculum vitae.
The Formal Report proposal was a daunting task. I knew I wanted to pick something interesting, important and that I had some personal experience with. I chose one important to all inhabitants and users of the Sea to Sky Corridor, the Garibaldi at Squamish resort development. This proposal is highly controversial and whether or not it gets approved will shape the future of Squamish. My only hesitation with this choice, is the large scope of the research. It will probably take a lot of work to finish the final report, but I am keenly interested in the final outcome, as I have yet to decide whether I support it or not.
Next, I created a LinkedIn profile. I don’t like to put a lot of personal information online, but I realize the utility of the social network in a professional context. Since I will be graduating next year and beginning a search for employment, it is a good time to start working on an Application Package. I am grateful that creating a LinkedIn profile is a part of course work, as this makes it twice as useful. I am also fortunate to have a lot of experience to draw upon, because I have worked for several years before coming back to university.
Tim had some excellent and specific feedback for me. He encouraged me to elaborate on some of my job experience and to add communications to my list of skills, which would be important to a consulting agency. I never thought of communications as a skill of mine, but maybe after this course it will be. He also helped me in my grammar, which is a persistent issue, but I am getting better.
As usual, I found it difficult to do a peer review, but the more I read Tim’s profile the more useful advice I had. Tim has a very good profile already and it is clear he has a wealth of experience to draw upon, but he had room for improvement on introducing his project.
Lesson 3 provided me time to process and develop my Formal Report. Making the outline forced me to think about the format of my paper. I narrowed down what I will research and came up with some interview questions. I was somewhat confused on what to put in the outline. I added as much as I could, but I will need to elaborate once I get into the research. Overall, I found these tasks quite helpful in the planning stage; I will have to remember them for future reports, as I feel like I can go into writing with more clarity now.
Unit 2 definitely proved ENGL 301 to be an “intensive writing course” and I’m sure it will only get more intense from here. I probably have never written this many words for a course before. However, it does seem like my writing is improving and I am happy with the progress. There are still areas I need to improve in though. I keep making simple grammatical errors, for example Tim pointed out my incorrect usage of an apostrophe in his peer review. I also need to continue working on concision. When I edit, I am trying to cut out as many words as possible, without losing meaning. I also still struggle with having a professional tone and taking the “person” out of my writing, but it is something I have recognized and will continue to work on.
2.1 Formal Project Proposal Jacob Bauer