UBC ENGL 301 99A BLOG

My name is Jessica Lee and I am a third-year student at the University of British Columbia, majoring in Sociology.

Although majoring in Sociology, my main passion actually lies in writing and marketing. I’ve taken more than three courses in Creative Writing at UBC and have experienced around four marketing internships to this day. It is precisely my passion for writing and marketing that have led me to taking up the ENGL 301 course!

I hope you enjoy reading through this Web Folio as much as I enjoyed creating it!

As we finish this course, I reflect on what I have learned and built throughout the term.

Being a technical writing course, evidently, the strongest focus was morphing our writing into a much more professional tone which I felt I have accomplished. Prior to joining this course, I used flattery language throughout my writing both at school and at work. Though, having learnt how to minimize the use of imperative verbs and how to write in YOU attitude, I now write concisely and efficiently. It is a great advantage at the workspace as these skills make the emails shorter and increase readability for my colleagues.

What was difficult, however, was time management. Not only am I on the other side of the world from the official course’ time zone, but ENGL 301 99A is also a web-oriented course which asks students to be disciplined and knows how to manage time. Having to balance my internship and school was difficult so I would always plan at least two weeks ahead and make sure I am working on my assignments bit by bit. Instead of waiting until the last minute to submit the work, I would always submit as early as possible so I wouldn’t have to worry about the submission deadline.

In general, this course really bettered my professional writing style and my time management skills. I hope these skills will stick by me and I look forward to adopting them in my everyday life even after this term finishes!

As the final assignment of the term, the Web Folio asks students to adopt all the skills they have learned throughout the course and practice them during the creation of their web-portfolio. The Web Folio is a website portfolio for the works we have done over the course.

I thought the web-folio would be an easy task of adding documents and writing up descriptions, in fact, a lot of logic and editing is required. Throughout the process, I’ve had to review my own work repeatedly for any excessive use of imperative words and to make sure I am writing in YOU attitude where appropriate. Self-editing has proven to be hard because sometimes it’s easy to miss your own mistakes, so I would exit and re-enter the Web Folio constantly to refresh my perspective. I also had to keep in mind who my audience was when I was designing my Web Folio so I keep the writing professional and on track.

A lot of organizing also came into play with the instructions as listed on the Unit 4.3 website. Students were asked to design a number of different pages for the works they have created throughout the course. These documents were then asked to be organized according to best works or even grouped under different categories such as a page for “Application Package” or “Social Media”.

I personally think it was fun creating a Web Folio seeing as it is the final destination of all my works created throughout the term. I also do believe it is a great way for me to build my own portfolio, should I have the need, and showcase it to businesses or companies.

Week Three began with learning about “writing with YOU attitude”. Through the modules posted online by Dr. Paterson and the materials in the textbook, we focused on how to write professionally without the excessive use of pronouns and imperative verbs. The assignments under Unit 3.1 proved to be somewhat difficult as we are actually very used to writing exactly the way we would say it verbally, thus, making our writing very unprofessional and wordy. Learning to write with YOU attitude trained me to write concisely yet respectfully.

I faced a number of difficulties when writing the formal report draft especially with confidentiality issues with the interviews and not receiving enough data from the surveys posted. In order to collect insights on Urban Outfitters China and its positioning in the Chinese fashion market, I interviewed two senior members of staff from the URBN CHINA team, which was less successful than I had hoped it to be due to confidentiality issues which restricted the two members from revealing too much information. The best I could do, therefore, was to rephrase my questions at times and ask them to answer more general questions. Additionally, I’ve been asking friends, families, and colleagues to send around the survey for more submissions but some have responded saying Google Form is not easy to use in mainland China due to China’s block on Google. With the survey results continuously coming in at a rather slow rate, it was hard to set a time on writing the report draft. Eventually, I decided to write the survey section last and will make sure I edit that section for the final version of the report according to the latest amount of surveys collected.

I enjoyed peer-reviewing my team-member Nicholas’ formal report draft. Having peer-reviewed so many of my team’s pieces throughout this course already, this process has become much smoother. I knew the details I had to look out for and paid extra attention to writing with YOU attitude and the unnecessary usage of imperative verbs. I greatly appreciated Nicholas’s peer-review of my draft, too, as it provided a new perspective to my work that I would not have had before. He pinpointed the mistakes I have missed out on and guided me on how to perfect my final version of the report.

Overall, I learned a significant amount from this unit, particularly on how to write professionally with the YOU attitude and without imperative verbs. I believe these skills will come of great use when writing in formal settings and I look forward to adopting these writing styles in the near future.

301 – Jessica Lee – Formal Report Draft

Overall, in unit two, we have dived into a lot more professional content writing which I found very interesting. Prior to this unit, I already established a LinkedIn account but was lacking a lot of details that I had only learned to complete after Unit 2.1. In addition to conducting my own research on the best practices for a LinkedIn profile, with Phoebe’s peer review of my LinkedIn profile I was able to improve the presentation of my page. Now I can say I am much more confident with job searching and being found by recruiters on the site.

The process of brainstorming and preparing for my report proposal was a fun one. I knew what I wanted to investigate in from the start, considering it was a question that I had since joining the company, but this assignment gave me a legitimate reason to look into it professionally. I’m very excited to follow the guidelines and process to learn more about my investigation. Though, my only concern would be the investment in time and how much energy I will have to dedicate into data collection. Hopefully with the creation of a schedule and timeline, everything will come together nicely. Additionally, I believe booking an interview time with my interviewees a week in advance would be beneficial to both parties.

Similar to what I have mentioned in my unit one reflection, I find the peer review process to be extremely helpful. It is not only a way for peers to double-check each other’s works, but it is a way for me to learn new ideas and refresh my thinking. I greatly appreciate my peers for pointing out details or mistakes that often go unnoticed by me. I also find Dr.Paterson’s comments to be very helpful as it points out what I need to improve on. I often find my work to be much more refined upon taking the suggestions as mentioned in Dr.Paterson’s comments. All in all, I look forward to reading more of my peer’s works and reviews as it often provides me with new perspectives on the same assignment.

My Revised Report Proposal: 301 – Jessica Lee – Assignment 2.1 Research Proposal

Hyperlink to Nicholas Jang’s peer review of my proposal: https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-99a-2020wa/2020/10/19/nicholas-jang-assignment-2-1-research-proposal-peer-review-jessica-lee/

Unit One of ENGL 301 99A asked its students to get familiar with writing professional letters, emails, memos, and definitions. Through the application of various professional writing techniques, I have built my own blog up from scratch; formed a formal writing team; and created a definition document targeted for audiences who have no knowledge in my defined term’s area.

The definition assignment proved to be a challenge as I had to keep in mind at all times that I am writing a definition for an audience who has no knowledge of what I was explaining. By following the steps of explaining the terms using parenthetical definition, sentenced definition, then expanded definition, it made the process of defining the term easier as it was a building process – each definition had an added amount of information that made the explanation more detailed. What was also difficult was ensuring I wasn’t repeating myself by using the same words to define the term – replacing “sampling” with “selection” or “divided” in the explanations.

I found the peer review process to be of great help as I was able to learn from my peer’s writing techniques and styles. Barton’s definition assignment used a very direct and simple language to allow the audience to understand better which I felt was very helpful. By reading through the three definitions of Barton’s chosen term “absorption rate”, I had a pretty good idea what the term meant without any prior knowledge in real estate. Although Barton had missed out on a visual and a few expansion techniques in his own writing which I had reminded him of in the peer review, it also reminded me to revisit my own work to ensure I had fulfilled all the requirements for my definition. Overall, I believe the peer review process was beneficial to both parties and allowed us both to further improve our works.

The self-editing process was pretty straightforward thanks to Barton’s comments in the peer review. He specified clearly where I needed to improve my work which included clarifying whether or not stratified sampling is strictly for sociology only; correcting my works cited format; and adding a few more details in my expanded definition. Coming back to self-edit my work along with Barton’s recommendations, I was able to see the mistakes and details that I had missed out on before. The whole assignment, overall, was challenging as it put me in the shoes of an educator in a way, explaining a term to someone who has no prior knowledge in the related field. Unit One was a great introduction to the professional writing course and I look forward to learning and adopting more professional writing techniques in my future writing.

Attachment to my revised definition assignment: 301 – Jessica Lee – Assignment 1.3

Link to Barton’s peer review of my definition assignment: https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-99a-2020wa/2020/10/05/assig-1-3-peer-review-stratified-sampling/

From: jessicalee6688@yahoo.com

To: bartonlui.ca@gmail.com

Date: September 20th, 2020

Subject: ENGL 301 99A Barton Lui Application Letter

Dear Barton,

I have read your application letter on your ENGL 301 Blog and would like to invite you to be a part of my professional writing team.

From your application letter which states your experience with the Vancouver Housing Club, it is evident that you are communicative when it comes to connecting businesses and agencies. I also appreciate how motivated you are in upgrading yourself and would love to have that kind of spirit in my writing team.

With that being said, please find my application letter enclosed to this email, and here is a link to my bio page where you can learn more about me.

I look forward to hearing from you soon and hope to work with you for the remainder of the semester!

Kind Regards,

Jessica Lee

301 Jessica Lee Application Letter

From: jessicalee6688@yahoo.com

To: nicholasjang@outlook.com

Date: September 20th, 2020

Subject: ENGL 301 99A Nicholas Jang Application Letter

Dear Nicholas,

I have read your application letter on your ENGL 301 Blog and would like to invite you to be a part of my professional writing team.

From your application letter which states you have been a licensed realtor since you were 19, it is clear that you are a very motivated and goal-driven individual. I also greatly appreciate your role as UBC CVC’s cultural director which I am sure provides great insights into digital and events communication.

With that being said, please find my application letter enclosed to this email, and here is a link to my bio page where you can learn more about me.

I look forward to hearing from you soon and hope to work with you for the remainder of the semester!

Kind Regards,

Jessica Lee

From: jessicalee6688@yahoo.com

To: yuanashl@student.ubc.ca

Date: September 20th, 2020

Subject: ENGL 301 99A Ashley Yuan Application Letter

Dear Ashley,

I have read your application letter on your ENGL 301 Blog and would like to invite you to be a part of my professional writing team.

From your application letter which states you are currently pursuing your second degree, it is clear that you are a goal-driven individual who manages her assignments well and delivers timely. I also appreciate your diverse experiences that could provide great value to the different forms of writing we may encounter throughout the course.

With that being said, please find my application letter enclosed to this email, and here is a link to my bio page where you can learn more about me.

I look forward to hearing from you soon and hope to work with you for the remainder of the semester!

Kind Regards,

Jessica Lee

Memorandum

 

To: Dr. Erika Paterson, Instructor, ENGL 301 99A, UBC

From: Jessica Lee, Student, ENGL 301 99A

Date: September 17, 2020

Subject: Letter of Application for ENGL 301 99A Writing Team

 

In order to form into professional writing teams, I have written a Letter of Application and posted it onto my ENGL 301 99A blog. Enclosed with this memo you can find a copy of my letter of application.

Please find below a summary of my application letter

• My request to be considered as a member of the professional writing team
• An overview of my academic and work background
• My strengths and weaknesses in the writing fields
• Examples of my academic and work history

Please feel free to let me know if you have any further questions.

Thank you.

301 Jessica Lee Application Letter