Researching and Organizing the Formal Report Draft
My data section for my formal report draft consisted three types of research: an quick questionnaire with the stakeholders of the Tim Horton’s located on campus, student survey, and online secondary research. This formal assignment provided me the experience of collecting real-world data in using different methods.
When I approached the manager and owners of the Tim Hortons on campus, they were initially hesitant in answering my questions as they were busy and seemed uninterested. Through multiple attempts they agreed to answer my short questionnaire that I sent to them through email. This experience taught me how that collecting real-world data is not a one time thing, but a process that requires consistent effort and understanding of the other parties.
Conducting the student survey part of my report was exciting and engaging. I was genuinely curious about the results I would get as I wanted to see if other students experience the same frustrations as me. I sent my survey in my the BCS group chat for my cohort and also privately messaged peers that were not BCS. Getting the results and looking at them showed me that I was not alone with my frustrations experienced when ordering from Tim Hortons. I enjoyed this process as my report address a problem that not just me, but many other students experience.
The formal report outline assignment that I worked on earlier was very helpful in organizing my report. Most of the time you know what you want to write, the hard part is making it into something coherent. By first doing the outline, I already had all my ideas laid out in a way that flows nicely. I still need to fix certain sections, but the outline assignment was immensely useful in what I would consider the harder part of writing a report.
Writing the Formal Report Draft
Writing the first draft of the formal report was more gratifying than I thought it would. Usually I am dreading writing reports, as I have a hard time thinking about what to write about and how to convey my thoughts into words. However, because of the previous assignments the writing process went smoothly. I really enjoyed looking at the survey results, creating figure to represent the data found, and interpreting what they mean in the context of my report and figuring out how I could use this data to show the feasibility of my report.
Having created numerous reports in different disciplines during my first degree, I was able to draw upon my experience and implement them into this report. Even with my experience I was able to learn new things writing my formal report draft. Writing a report addressed to an audience rather than just a summary report requires a different approach. Overall I learned new things when writing my formal report draft that I can use in the future.
Peer Review Process
During the peer review process I reviewed the draft of my team member Delsther James Edralin and also review a review of my draft. This exercise like the previous peer reviews provides great insight into your own work and other people’s work. I was able to see how Delsther approached his report and was able to take somethings from his report that I would like to incorporate into mine. I was also able to review good feedback from Delsther about my draft and will address the issue as I am working towards the final draft.
Delsther provided useful feedback and suggestions for my report. Delsther recommended a brief summary of the reports that I used and also provide more detail about my research methodology and specific findings to understand the significance and the validity of the study. Delsther also pointed out that I was missing running headers, page numbers, and page numbers in the table of contents. The peer review process gave me insight on mistakes and oversight that I made so that I can fix it for the final draft.
Unit 3 allowed me to experience different writing approaches and opportunities to fix flaws in my writing.