Original Writing
Technical terms and jargons are often used when defining another technical term in Economics courses I have taken in UBC. Thus, I found it quite challenging to define a technical term that is commonly used in the field of Economics using plain English. After choosing to define the term “Guaranteed Income Certificates”, I wrote and revised the assignment a few times to make it easier for my target audience to comprehend. During the process, I realized that writing coherent definitions wasn’t easy, especially with my target audience I have in mind. I substituted technical descriptors with simpler terms while trying to maintain the clarity and accuracy of my definitions. Despite my effort, my groupmate who peer reviewed my work pointed out a couple of jargons that were present in my assignment. I assumed that readers would understand terms such as “interest” and “savings account” intuitively, but it seemed not to be the case. Being accustomed in using the terms led me to overlook revising those words into simpler terms.
Peer Review Process
The peer review process gave me a chance to try something new. Having never written a peer review before, it taught me how to organize and practice writing an appropriate one. By following the proper guidelines outlined in the textbook, the peer review process taught me how to write suggestions that are both constructive and effective, analyze the relevance of supporting materials and its connection to the paper’s thesis, and evaluate the effectiveness that the visual lends to the understanding of the definition. Furthermore, this experience taught me to pay extra attention in using technical terms to explain another technical term because it may not help clarify the definition but rather cause more questions than answers.
Editing Process
Editing my assignment taught me that substituting as much plain English as possible for technical or more complex terms helped make my article more understandable for my target audience. Another thing I learned was that choosing the appropriate visual can help make the understanding of my Definitions assignment easier for my target audience. The visual examples I found in the internet incorporated some degree of technicality that may confuse the reader. In the end, I decided to create a visual myself which I believe is easier to understand than the ones I found. Incorporating the appropriate visual also made my assignment more enticing for my target audience to read.
Revised Definition Assignment: 301 Joanna Yu Definitions Assignment – Revised