Researching and Organizing the Formal Report Draft
To complete the data section for my formal report draft assignment, three components of research were completed: An instructor interview, a student survey, and online secondary research. Although I was initially nervous about conducting the interview and survey portions of my research, I was also grateful that the formal report assignment allowed me to experience collecting real-world data for the first time. Through this experience, I learned an important lesson about collecting real-world data, and learned something new about myself.
After I had emailed my biology instructor requesting for their participation in an interview, I began to worry as I had not received a reply after 24 hours. Despite the short amount of time, I had started to jump to conclusions and wondered whether my email request was rude in any way. However, a few days later my biology instructor had responded with her full support, and even shared articles and books that would be useful for my report. This experience taught me that conducting real-world research is a process that requires patience and the understanding that everyone, especially instructors, are busy people.
The student survey aspect of my report was especially difficult as it required me to go outside my comfort zone in front of my peers. I posted my survey on a biology student Facebook group and by private message to my peers, politely requesting their participation. Something I came to realize was that I had a lot of fun during the entire process; I enjoyed reaching out to my fellow peers and gathering their opinions. This was a significant realization as something that I perceived would be nerve-racking instead turned out to be fun and engaging.
After the primary and secondary research had been completed, the next step was organizing my report. I initially thought this would be a difficult process, but I remembered how completing the formal report outline assignment had already provided me an effective organization of my report. Although I still needed to tweak certain sections, the outline assignment served as a useful template for me to reference, and gave me more appreciation for the previous assignments leading up to the formal report draft.
Writing the Formal Report Draft
After the researching and organizing steps were completed, I started writing the first draft of my formal report. I found that the most enjoyable part of this process was creating the figures. After working hard on collecting student opinions, it was great to see the data come together and be represented in a visually appealing way. Furthermore, I found that the most surprising part of this process was how easy the actual writing came to me. Due to the previous assignments leading up to the first draft (the proposal, outline, and progress report), I was well-prepared for each section of the report, making the actual writing component relatively straightforward. This was surprising to me as I usually have difficulty finding the right words to accurately express myself.
The last section of the draft I worked on was the table of contents. While writing this section, I gained a deeper appreciation for the formal report assignment, as I realized that this report was the first piece of writing I created that was complex enough to warrant the use of a table of contents. The writing I have completed during my biology degree thus far has only covered one aspect of research, whether that be in the form of lab reports or online research reports. For that reason, I’m grateful to have gotten the opportunity to create writing that combines multiple types of research.
Peer Review Process
Through the peer review process I was able to review the draft of a team member (Alexander Clements) and receive a review of my own draft. I found this exercise to be highly useful, similar to the two previous peer reviews. By reviewing my colleague’s work I got exposed to different ways that the report can be approached, and received helpful feedback on my writing regarding awkward sentences and gaps in information.
I was impressed when reading Alex’s report by the variety of topics that Alex discussed in his report. Whereas my report discusses student and instructor opinions, along with secondary research, Alex’s report covers these topics with two additional topics (resources required and commute data). While reviewing Alex’s work, it was also interesting to compare how the two of us approached the same task in a different way. Whereas I used pie charts to represent the proportions of my data, Alex opted to use bar charts to represent his data, which I would not have thought of doing. It was helpful to be exposed to different topics and approaches as it expands my perspective as a writer.
Through this process I also received helpful feedback for my report. Alex provided useful suggestions and pointed out minor errors that I failed to previously notice. For example, Alex noted many awkwardly written sentences throughout my report and even provided potential ways to rewrite them. Also, Alex explained how he was confused by the concept of grades contributing to the avoidance of challenging work by students. When I re-read my report I realized that I should have explained that concept in more depth. Receiving a review of my work allowed me the opportunity to fix mistakes in my first draft that I had not previously noticed.
I hope to utilize the exposure to different writing approaches, and the discovery of newfound flaws in my own writing, to strengthen my abilities as a writer.