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I always thought of myself as an independent learner, especially after having taken a few online courses. I expected ENGL 301 to be similar to my other experiences but staying on task was not easy. Instead of having exams like traditional courses, this course was a continual learning process that oftentimes involved a lot of work on the same assignment. Projects such as the formal report required extra dedicated time on top of other assignments. Instead of taking the approach of doing a bit of work each day I realized dedicating large blocks of time for writing helped me maintain my train of thought and complete assignments more efficiently. 

In ENGL 301 we covered many topics of technical communication that were new to me, and got the chance to work on interesting assignments in groups. A memorable part of this course was receiving and giving frequent peer feedback. This helped me improve greatly, compared to other courses that rely solely on instructor feedback. Some assignments that showcase my strengths are: the memo to Evan Crisp, and the application package. Both of which explored writing with YOU-attitude, a new topic I was introduced to in this course. The instructor’s blog had some useful examples that I often referred to while writing. My work was both professional but personal, so as to show respect to the reader while delivering a clear message. 

The assignment I am most proud of is my peer review to Jobina of her formal report draft. This peer review took a lot of time and refinements because my first draft included many imperative verbs, negative phrasing, and the past tense. Reading through, my feedback seemed far too critical and demanding. So, I replaced the imperative verbs with “-ing” verbs and rephrased about 25% of the review, making everything more reader-friendly.

At the beginning of the course, I hoped to focus on conciseness and organization. Reading my team members’ writing helped in those compartments- we each had a unique style and there was lots of learn from. I really appreciate the feedback from “Smells Like Team Spirit” (my writing team) and am very fortunate to have learned from students from different backgrounds. (Good luck everyone in your amazing endeavors!)

This whole experience was worthwhile and memorable. A few years down the road I see myself using the communication skills from ENGL 301 in the field of education. I have always been interested in teaching and finding ways to better communicate science to children and youth. Now I am better equipped to explain STEM to different audiences and bridge the gap between scientists and students. Being a teacher would capture a lot of my interests but regardless of which path I choose, this course has provided me with useful templates and guides such as the application package and web folio that will come in handy in the future.

To showcase the work done in ENGL 301, I chose to create my Web Folio on a UBC Blogs site.  This assignment encapsulates the course well and gives a good idea of what to expect for future students taking ENGL 301. 

In my opinion web folios should be intuitive to navigate and aesthetically pleasing. As a Biology student with little experience in website design, my blog started out with the bare minimums and no visuals. The initial creation of my site was straightforward but at times learning new HTML to format posts took a while.  One of the most helpful tips I learned was how to get rid of extra spaces by using “Shift + Enter” instead of just “Enter”. Over time I played around with the themes and added images I took around BC for personalization. The theme I went with was professional and modern. 

In the past I have tried creating a blog, but without a clear goal completing and publishing the site was just a distant thought. After two years, that blog is still far from finished. On the contrary, the ENGL 301 blog is a testament to how easy publishing a site can be when there is a purpose in mind. The contents of my blog, as suggested by the course, are all very useful, especially the online resume, LinkedIn profile, and formal report. For potential employers, having an accessible resume and online profile makes for easy screening and contact. In addition, the formal report provides a great writing sample. I also appreciate the personal aspect of having a bio that may increase the chances of people connecting with me. 

These days having an online presence is important and this web folio project is something I would like to expand on or modify in the future. Perhaps I would add current projects, accomplishments, and periodic reflection posts. This blog also motivates me to keep my Linkedin up to date. Trying out different themes could also be helpful in finding the optimal balance between simplicity and customizability.  In general this website would remain for academic and professional needs. Overall the process of creating a web folio was a rewarding accomplishment that I am excited to showcase.

Exam season is upon UBC, leaving us with just shy of 2 weeks for ENGL 301. The most recent unit, Unit 3 focused mainly on the process of doing research, planning a proposal, creating a draft of the formal report, and peer reviewing. Writing a formal report was a daunting task at first. My topic was reducing single-use plastic waste at Geering Up. There was a lot of ground to cover with a strict timeline. The self-guided nature of the report was both convenient and challenging. Luckily, for one of the previous assignments, a formal report schedule and report outline were already planned out, keeping me on task. One of the first things I did was research on plastics. There were so many resources but ones that stood out to me were reports published by environmental organizations. After learning more about my topic, I moved on to interviewing and conducting surveys. Everyone was enthusiastic to contribute to this project. 

After around a week of collecting data, I moved onto writing my report. Deciding where to start took a while: weighing analyzing the data, or writing an intro and conclusion first. Eventually I decided to write about what I gathered from reading about my topic while everything was still fresh in my memory. After writing for what felt like forever, I realized the report was only one tenth complete. I dedicated 30 minutes each day for a week to write the rest of the report but often found myself stuck. One day I decided to start working on the report from when I got home to when I had to sleep. Writing continuously helped my writing flow. During this process, I took out subsections that were distracting and insignificant. The next day, after some peer-editing I passed it on to Jobina to review. 

Jobina was very quick to review my piece – something I appreciated greatly. She gave insightful comments that I probably would have never thought of. Seeing how someone else interprets your work is always interesting. The main things brought up were around formatting and structure of the report.  

My biggest takeaways were:

• Focusing on being clear (and coming up with a new title)
• Eliminating unnecessary information 
• Thoroughly editing the intro to make it more focused 

The peer review helped me identify that my writing could use more organization. I tried following the outline for this report to stay on task but there were certain spots where I strayed from the topic, especially in the subsections. In the future, continuing to use an outline for writing would help greatly. An outline similar to the one for my report would ensure the presence of all important sections but perhaps I could also write a short sentence under each heading in the outline to remind myself of the main focus. 

This assignment was different from the others due to its length and nature. I was used to peer reviewing memos and one to two page long assignments. But by using the same template as for other peer reviews, the process was not as difficult as I had imagined. I started with first impressions, then moved to section-specific comments, and finally ending with some general suggestions. In the process of reviewing Jobina’s report, I learned more about organization and formatting. There was a clear central idea with supporting branches throughout the report. Her writing was concise as usual and the layout made the 12 page report easy to read. One thing we could both improve on is using the word “it” less because it takes away from the quality of the work. 

I am glad that the bulk of my report is done. I’m looking forward to making modifications according to the peer review and continue working on writing with YOU-attitude. This project has been the most thorough one this semester and will definitely be something I look back on to appreciate. 

Formal Report Draft: 301 Jenny Zhu – Lesson 3:2 – Formal Report Draft

Now halfway through the course as we are wrapping up Unit 2, I am looking back on the process of creating a LinkedIn profile, preparing the report proposal, peer reviewing my partner’s proposal, and finally the peer review process. 

LinkedIn is a useful tool while navigating professional online networking. I created a profile many years back and have finally gotten around to updating it in this course. The main changes to my profile were: adding a summary, and writing descriptions for work and volunteer experiences. I learned that having a (personal) summary boosts the chances of being viewed on LinkedIn by 27 times. This must have been true, as the number of views and requests to connect on my profile increased following the addition of a summary. 

While the summary was easy to write, I struggled with adding details to my profile without making them sound boring. I wanted to find the balance between having enough information while being easy to read. So I opted for bullet points under my “Experience” section and included 3 – 4 pieces of information for each experience. Overall polishing my LinkedIn was a valuable opportunity. I will continue to keep my profile updated in the future. 

In this unit, we also worked on our formal reports. My topic of interest came to me easily but I had a lot to learn about writing formal reports. I wanted to tackle the issue of plastic waste at Geering Up because it was something I dealt with everyday, cared about, and has a fairly easily attainable solution. I found information and examples in the “Technical Communication” textbook helpful in writing my proposal. The proposal made me consider and reconsider many things including which questions I should include in the Scope” section, whether the goal of the report was to reduce plastic waste or to lower financial spendings for the company, and what methods of data collection would be least biased. 

After deciding that this report could promote both reducing single-use plastics and potentially lowering costs, I narrowed down the questions I included in “Scope”. For data collection, I initially planned to interview and survey Geering Up staff, but Dr. Paterson suggested surveying participants too. This was a good idea that I am still considering implementing because reaching out to participants could be unprofessional. I am hopeful towards producing an informative formal report but also realize the process is just getting started. 

As part of the writing process, peer review plays an important role. I reviewed Tom Howey’s proposal for the formal report and picked up on a few things that were valuable to my assignment as well. I noticed when examining other people’s work, having a fresh pair of eyes helps with noticing the details and coming up with things that perhaps the author  missed. Tom’s proposal was about making use of under-used study spaces on campus. I suggested considering the problem in more detail, because there could be many factors influencing the popularity of a location that should not be overlooked. The issue did not seem like a lack of good spaces, but rather an issue of convenience. I used my knowledge as a student who had been at UBC for 4+ years to reflect on why some spaces were less favorable and concluded that it was mainly concerning location and convenience rather than the inherent nature of the space. Reviewing Tom’s work was interesting and shed light on the multifaceted nature of problems. 

My formal report proposal was in turn reviewed by Tom. I appreciated the peer review process because each editor’s contributions were unique. Tom pointed out that my structure was good and the content was detailed, but there were a few details I overlooked during the self-editing process. I learned that decreasing the use of personal pronouns, and paying attention to punctuation and typos would strengthen my writing. Reading other peer feedback from my writing team also helped with asking questions about my own proposal, such as: Is the addressed issue too vague? Are my methods unbiased? What will my audience gain from the report?

For the upcoming weeks I will stick to my research schedule and work on collecting data. While one report may be insignificant in the grand scheme of things, it is a good start on raising awareness on the issue of plastic usage. I am anticipating some changes to my report as I discover things along the way, but excited to compile data from the surveys and interviews. 

Enclosure: 

Revised Report Proposal: ENGL 301 Jenny Zhu Lesson 2_1 – Revised Formal Report Proposal

Tom’s Peer Review: https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-99a-2019wa/2019/10/06/2-1-peer-review-of-formal-report-proposal/

In unit one’s final assignment we learned how to communicate one relatively complex term in our field in 3 ways (parenthetical, sentence, expanded definitions) with a specific audience in mind. Our work was further refined through peer editing with a teammate.

The term I chose to expand on was Cystic fibrosis. I selected this term because I think the ability to communicate common diseases that affect us is an important skill to have. At first I was afraid the term would be too simple. That was because I did not have a very deep understanding of the disease. Upon further research I discovered the intricacies of cystic fibrosis and even struggled to condense my thoughts. I started off by thinking about the questions I would have as a lay person about CF, amongst which were: “How is CF transmitted?”, “What are potential treatments for CF”, “What is the biological mechanism of CF?”. I brainstormed around 10 questions and categorized them by their similarities. I then eliminated questions that were too technical. In the end I had 5 categories. After placing them in a logical order I started doing research. Being an extremely well-researched topic, there were thousands of articles and webpages about CF. I picked out only the essential information from each source and compiled them to best fit the 5 categories.

My goal shifted from trying to detail every single fact about CF to focussing on conciseness. My writing partner Jobina helped me identify spots I could get rid of information that was not necessary to the understanding of CF. To illustrate, I shortened the history of CF to about half its size after removing facts like: doctors studied children during a heat wave to confirm ancient folklores of the disease and how many people today are affected by the disease. While interesting, those pieces of information deviated from the goal of informing readers about the CF’s history. A second piece of advice from Jobina was the usage of citations. There were areas where I forgot to cite because I was so familiar with the information and thought of it as common knowledge. Having another pair of eyes read my work helped me be more considerate of my audience.

In contrast to my original work, Jobina’s definitions were very concise. I gained a lot of knowledge without having to read too much. There were no spots where I felt information was irrelevant or repetitive. In fact, I thought more details could be added, especially when explaining the visual and comparing and contrasting cache memory to main memory. Nonetheless, I was intrigued by the way information was presented; the sections flowed and built on top of each other elegantly. I appreciated the use of very simple terms to define a concept that was foreign to me. Jobina chose a term that was easily relatable to and that made me think more about the everyday technology we use.

This assignment was valuable in helping me be more concise and receive feedback from my peers. I have come to realize how much work goes into educating non-technical audiences about specific things. I look forward to applying the knowledge I’ve gained here in the upcoming units and continuing to write in you attitude.

Enclosure: Jenny Zhu ENGL 301 Definitions – Revised

Jobina’s peer review of my assignment: click here

To: amy.vergouwen@alumni.ubc.ca
From: jennyszhu@alumni.ubc.ca
Date: September 18, 2019
Subject: ENGL 301 Writing Team
Attachments: 301 Jenny Zhu Application Letter

Dear Amy,

My name is Jenny and I would like to e-introduce myself as one of your writing team members this semester. Your work truly fascinates me and I am looking forward to learning from you and helping each other become better writers this semester.

Your involvements and experiences during your undergraduate degree are unique and impressive. I can imagine you learned a lot from them. I have a background in writing instructional material for educators, and being concise is a constant challenge – especially when you have so much information to share. But as you mentioned, through editing and re-editing we can narrow down our focus and pick out the vital information. Because your views and work habits parallel mine, I think we will complement each other’s peer-editing styles well. Finally, your team spirit and attention to detail will be great additions to our group.

I have attached my application letter for your reference. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me at jennyszhu@alumni.ubc.ca if you have any questions. I look forward to discovering more about writing this semester with you.

Sincerely,

Jenny Zhu

301 Jenny Zhu Application Letter

To: jobina@live.ca
From: jennyszhu@alumni.ubc.ca
Date: September 15, 2019
Subject: Joining Your Writing Team
Attachments: 301 Jenny Zhu Application Letter

Dear Jobina,

I have received and accepted Tom’s email invitation regarding joining your writing group. Your application letter indicated that we have many similarities, including job application experience, and work habits, that would make for compatible teammates.

I am impressed by the clarity and straightforwardness in your works of writing that I have seen on your blog site. I hope we can combine our experiences in catering to various audiences to become even better at writing with “You-Attitude”. Much of my professional writing comes in the form of persuasive and instructional styles, but in different fields than yours. Given that, I believe it will be easy for us to give new insights based off of our existing knowledge. Similar to you, I sometimes struggle with fitting in many ideas while maintaining flow in my writing. But as we have identified cohesiveness as something to work on, we can be more observant of that in the future.

Attached in this email is a copy of my application letter for your interest. I look forward to advancing in technical writing together through capitalizing on our wide range of experiences.

Best regards,

Jenny Zhu

301 Jenny Zhu Application Letter

To: tom.howey@alumni.ubc.ca
From: jennyszhu@alumni.ubc.ca
Date: September 15, 2019
Subject: RE: Creating ENGL 301 Writing Team
Attachments: 301 Jenny Zhu Application Letter

Dear Tom,

Thank you for your invitation. I believe our set of experiences would complement each other well and would gladly accept to be a part of your team.

Your application letter touched on your experience with MURC and UBC Sailbot, two projects that I imagine require a lot of preparation and organization for. While I have ample experience in creating written content, I think I can learn from you on how to enhance audience experience by creating visually appealing material. The layout of your blog site reflects your familiarity with creating good visuals for presentations. I understand your concern with working in a team virtually, but I can assure you from taking other fully online courses, you will pick up on this type of environment quickly. It is great that we get to experience online communication in this course, as it is becoming more and more common the professional settings.

I have attached my application letter if you wish to review it again. I look forward to collaborating and becoming better writers with you and Jobina this semester.

Best regards,

Jenny Zhu

301 Jenny Zhu Application Letter

To: Dr. Erika Paterson, ENGL 301 Instructor
From: Jenny Zhu, ENGL 301 Student
Date: September 14, 2019
Subject: Writing team application letter posted

Dear Dr. Erika Paterson,

I have posted my letter of application to join a writing team for this course on my blog as requested in Lesson 1:2. Attached below is a copy.

This letter serves to summarize:

• My experience with written communication from school, volunteering, and work
• What I value most in a team setting, how I will contribute to my writing team, and what I hope to gain
• My strengths and weaknesses in writing
• How I learn best

Please let me know if have any questions or concerns and I would be happy to attend to them. You may reach me at jennyszhu@alumni.ubc.ca

301 Jenny Zhu Application Letter

Regards,

Jenny

Jenny Zhu
6016 Larch Street
Vancouver, BC V6M 4E4

September 11, 2019

ENGL 301: Technical Writing
University of British Columbia
2329 West Mall
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3

Dear Class: 

I am writing to you in the interest of applying to be a part of your ENGL 301 writing team, as per the course website. As a member of your team, I aim to foster a productive learning community and also hope to gain, through feedback and teamwork, relevant skills for my future profession in Education. 

I am a fourth year Biology student who has garnered competencies for technical writing through a wide range of courses. The scope of my work includes developing proposals, composing emails to professional scientists, and writing scientific papers to accurately and concisely convey technical ideas in an organized manner. A key aspect that distinguishes me as a writer is experience gained from my wealth of Co-ops and involvement in on-campus clubs. During my term as Co-president of the UBC Red Cross club, I liaised with dozens of local organizations, wrote reference letters, and communicated effectively with students in the goal of persuading them to volunteer for a good cause. In my current position at an engineering outreach organization, I develop STEM-related activity scripts for high school students and teachers that focus on explaining big concepts in simple terms. Throughout, I have become adept at writing for different audiences and expressing ideas clearly.

I thrive in environments that are as encouraging as they are critical. Encouragement helps create nurturing spaces where ideas may be expressed freely. At the same time constructive feedback is very important in the process of improvement. Above all, reliability is at the heart of effective teamwork. If accepted as your teammate I will be respectful of your opinions and reply in a timely manner to all assignments and questions. I will gladly apply and draw on my successes and failures from my professional and academic experiences to help us all learn. I aim to offer you my utmost observational and reflective skills, paying special attention to precision of speech. Given that, I think I can strengthen my own writing by using a more varied vocabulary and achieving better coherence between topics. 

I look forward to meeting many of you and sharing our different backgrounds to converge on the common skill of technical writing. You can connect with me at jennyszhu@alumni.ubc.ca.

Sincerely,

Jenny Zhu

Application Letter in Word document:

301 Jenny Zhu Application Letter

This is my blog page, where I’ll be posting to regularly throughout the semester. With first week’s assignments done, I am now even more excited to see what’s to come in this course. I look forward to building my site and getting to know my peers. But for now, I’m heading off to work.

With that, I leave you with a Hank Green quote:

“I live in the present due to the constraints of the time-space continuum.”

-Jenny