Prior to taking this class, I did not really consider having a specific weakness aside from the fact that English is not my first language. After receiving feedback from my peer and instructor, I realized that my biggest weakness is that I write little content. My peer commented that I could make my sentences shorter and more concise. My instructor point out that my peer reviews are often too brief, and I should write detailed sentences. I think I might have focused too much on filling the word limit. I understand that technical writing and communication is different, so I focused on writing with more detail but keeping it concise. It is still something I need to work on, so I am glad I learned useful writing techniques (such as the “You attitude”) I could continue using throughout university and the workplace.
On the other hand, I considered organization and time management to be my biggest strengths in writing. I learned from my experience as a reporter that meeting the deadline is crucial, and therefore planning out everything from the schedule to outline is the biggest key to professional writing. I did struggle with writing the formal report, mostly because of the topic itself, but for all the other assignments I was able to submit them on time.
One thing I did not expect from this course is that it is highly dependent on the peer review process. There were a total of 3 peer review assignments including: definitions assignment, formal report proposal and formal report draft. I believe it was a valuable experience because it gave me the opportunity to thoroughly read my peer’s writing and give my impressions and suggestions, which is a practice that happens all the time in the industry (i.e. exchanging feedback, etc.). I was also able to improve my own writing from my peer’s feedback. From fixing minor typos to changing the structure, I would not have been able to do without the constructive criticism.
Overall, the course helped me learn and make use of important writing skills and techniques used in academia and the workplace. Now that my first co-op term is coming up, I am planning to review what I learned from this course and work on improving my weaknesses while honing my strengths.