Author: kashish garg

My Strengths

Throughout ENGL 301, I have recognized three strengths in my learning process. My first strength is that I am not afraid to ask questions when I am uncertain about something. There have been a few instances throughout the semester where I have been unsure about a particular assignment, and in these situations, I have contacted my ENGL 301 instructor, Dr. Paterson, for clarification. My second strength is that I am always willing to listen to advice from my peers and instructors. Implementing suggestions made from my writing team members during peer reviews of my assignments has not only improved my work, but has also allowed me to recognize flaws and errors in my writing. My third strength is that I am always eager to learn new things. I have enjoyed learning writing techniques such as YOU-attitude and how to professionally write memos, peer reviews, proposals, reports, etc.

Two strengths I believe I have in regards to my assignments are that they are appropriately detailed and that the effort I put into them are clear to see. With each assignment, I do my best to be specific and provide the necessary details. Furthermore, I approach each assignment thoughtfully and complete them to the best of my abilities.

My Weaknesses

During ENGL 301, I have also identified three weaknesses in regards to my learning process and assignments. The first weakness of mine is that I lack strong time management skills. Unfortunately, throughout the semester I have submitted a few assignments past the deadline, as I struggle with starting the assignments at the appropriate time. However, I hope to improve this weakness going forward by breaking down tasks into smaller steps and by setting realistic daily goals. Another weakness of mine is that my assignments can lack conciseness out of fear of not providing an adequate level of detail. I hope to improve this weakness by leaving myself enough time to proofread my assignments for wordy phases and unnecessary words. My third weakness is that I can focus too much on one particular aspect of an assignment. For example, for the Unit 2 peer review assignment, I focused too much on commenting on the form of the document, as opposed to the content. However, I do think I improved at commenting on the overall quality and content in my Unit 3 peer review.

How My Strengths Support My Future Goals

My long-term career goal is to enter the tech industry as a software developer, and I believe my strengths complement a career in software development. Asking lots of questions is essential for developers as it promotes a deeper understanding of the task or project at hand, and clarifying requirements for a particular project will ensure that the end-user is satisfied with the end result. Furthermore, listening to advice is important in any industry, as it opens your mind to new knowledge and different ways to approach a task. Moreover, being eager to learn new things is crucial for developers, as the tech industry is dynamic and developers are constantly learning new technologies. Additionally, being detail-oriented is a key component of software development, as even the simplest syntax typos will cause errors in programs. Lastly, putting forth consistent effort is highly important in any industry, as it allows us to reach our maximum potential.

Organizing the Web Folio

For the last assignment in ENGL 301, we were tasked with creating a Web Folio, which is an online portfolio that highlights one’s achievements, experiences, skills, and/or goals. The platform I decided to build my Web Folio on was my original ENGL 301 blog, as I was already familiar with the UBC blogs website and thought that my blog’s minimal yet attractive layout would work well as a Web Folio.

Although I had decided where to build my Web Folio, I struggled with starting the assignment, as I was initially overwhelmed by all the different aspects of the Web Folio that needed to be put together. However, I realized that establishing the structure of the Web Folio,  by deciding how many pages would be included, along with what content each page would contain, gave me a clearer idea of how everything would come together, and helped alleviate feelings of intimidation. This experience made me realize the importance of strong organizational skills, which I hope to further develop going forward in my academic career.

Creating the Web Folio

The first part of creating my Web Folio was determining my audience, and as my future goals are centered around pursuing education in computer science, I decided that my Web Folio would be geared towards admission officers for UBC’s Bachelor of Computer Science (BCS).

Based on my chosen audience, I decided that a good way to individualize my Web Folio would be to include a ‘Projects’ page, where I would showcase the two technical projects I had completed. This turned out to be a great decision, as creating the Projects page ended up being my favorite part of the Web Folio. I’m grateful for the Web Folio assignment as it provided me a space to demonstrate my passion for computer science, and allowed me to showcase my technical projects in a visually appealing way. Also, through creating the Projects page, I learned how to add Youtube videos to my blog, which was a fun experience.

Another page I specifically enjoyed creating was the LinkedIn page, as it gave me the opportunity to finally create my own LinkedIn profile. I had a lot of fun creating a LinkedIn profile, and while exploring the website, I got inspired by the profiles of UBC BCS students. This inspiration gives me the motivation to continue working hard towards my goals and to add more to my profile in the future.

My Overall Thoughts on the Web Folio and ENGL 301

The Web Folio has been an amazing opportunity for not only highlighting my academic achievements and future goals, but also for reflecting on all the work I’ve completed in ENGL 301 throughout the semester. After completing the ‘Best Work’ section of the Web Folio, I realized that ENGL 301 is unique from other courses I’ve taken at UBC, in the sense that there is an emphasis placed on self-reflection. This emphasis on self-reflection has allowed me to think critically about my work, and gain more from it as a consequence, which I am grateful for. After taking ENGL 301, I hope to make self-reflection play a more prominent role in not only my academic career, but in all aspects of my life.

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.

First Draft of Formal Report

LinkedIn Best Practices Assignment

For this assignment, we were tasked to research best practices for professional networking on LinkedIn. With the increasing ubiquity of the internet and social media, it has become more important than ever to have a strong online presence for developing your career. Although I’ve known about the importance of online tools such as LinkedIn for a long time, I have always avoided them, as building an online presence has felt intimidating, and thus my knowledge of professional networking was quite surface-level. This assignment has been a great learning opportunity for gaining a deeper understanding the inner workings of LinkedIn and professional networking. For example, I was already aware of certain practices such as having a professional headshot as a profile picture to look more employable, however, the use of keywords to optimize placement in search results was completely new to me. Researching how to create an effective LinkedIn profile has been a valuable experience, as gaining that deeper understanding has shifted my feelings towards professional networking from intimidation to excitement. After completing this assignment, I now feel excited to take that step towards creating a LinkedIn account and building a professional online network.

Report Proposal and Outline

The report proposal assignment tasked us with picking a problem or deficiency from an organization that we’ve recently been a part of to investigate, analyze, and help improve by providing recommendations through a formal report. I have not recently had any work experience or been involved in any organizations, so I had trouble brainstorming a proposal topic that I could confidently write a formal report on, and found this aspect of the assignment to be the most challenging. However, looking at some of my peer’s proposals I started to gain a boarder perspective on potential proposal topics. I remembered how I was currently taking a biology lab course, BIOL 342, that followed an ungraded approach, a format I had not experienced before but was really enjoying, so I decided to create a report on assessing the feasibility of transitioning biology lab courses to an ungraded approach. I had found a topic that was interesting to me, so the rest of the proposal components came much easier in comparison.

After the proposal I was still a bit uncertain of how my formal report would all come together, but completing the formal outline assignment was helpful in this regard, as I took time to separate and order the different sections of the report. This process gave me the structure and clarity I needed going forward with the progress memo assignment.

Peer Review Process

Through the peer review process I was able to review the draft of a team member (Dylan Flach) and receive a review of my own draft. Similar to the first peer review, I found this exercise to be highly beneficial as I learned an important lesson after reviewing my colleague’s work, and got helpful feedback on my writing that ended up strengthening my proposal.

I was surprised when reviewing Dylan’s proposal as they had included references to support his claims, which I had not thought to do (despite needing to) because it was not stated in the instructions for the assignment. Reviewing Dylan’s work reminded me that simply following instructions does not guarantee strong writing, and that sometimes adjustments should be made to tailor to your writing.

The peer review process was also helpful for receiving feedback. The real-world research component of the formal report was new to me, as most of my research for reports as a biology student was limited to the classroom and online resources. I was slightly nervous to conduct real-world research, which is why I initially limited my primary data collection to just an instructor interview. However, getting feedback from Dylan regarding the small scope of the methods encouraged me to go further outside my comfort zone and expand my research component to include a survey for biology students.

Peer reviewing has impacted my view on my writing as it has allowed me to get exposed to new writing perspectives, which I hope to implement going forward with ENGL 301.

Revised Report Proposal

Peer’s Review of Report Proposal

March 4th: Revise survey questions according to instructor feedback

March 10th: Complete primary data collection from surveys and secondary research

March 11th: Analyze and create survey charts from collected primary data

March 12th: Complete introduction section

March 14th: Complete body section

March 15th: Complete conclusion section

March 16th: Complete references, title page, and table of contents sections and submit Formal Report Draft

 March 19th: Complete Peer Review of Formal Report Draft

March 24th: Complete edits to Formal Report Draft according to peer review

March 26th: Submit Formal Report

Writing the First Draft of the Technical Definition

For this assignment, we were tasked to write a technical definition of a term for a non-technical audience. My term ‘meiosis’ is a relatively simple term for undergraduates and experts in natural sciences, yet was challenging to convey to non-technical audiences without using too much jargon. Three types of definitions were composed: parenthetical, sentence, and expanded. Parenthetical definitions explain a term briefly in parentheses. I did not find this type of definition too challenging and learned to use them to convey jargon in my expanded definition. Sentence definitions explain a term within a sentence, providing slightly more information than a parenthetical definition. Expanded definitions are thorough explanations of a term using a variety of expansion strategies such as etymology and visuals. I enjoyed learning about the different expansion strategies and choosing which strategies would help a non-technical audience gain a better understanding of my chosen term. Since my term is a biological process that occurs in distinct steps, using the ‘Analysis of Parts’ strategy allowed for a clear breakdown of the major steps. Through this assignment I gained knowledge of different types of definitions and gained experience writing for non-technical audiences.

Peer Review Process

Through the peer review process I was able to review the draft of a team member (Dylan Flach) and receive a review of my own draft. Examining the work of my team member allowed me to recognize flaws in my own writing that could be improved upon. For example, I liked how Dylan used a subheading for each expansion strategy they used, and found that it increased the organization of the document. Giving constructive feedback gave me a better understanding of a non-technical audience, as I had trouble understanding some jargon in Dylan’s writing, which made me realize I needed to clarify more jargon in my writing. Receiving constructive feedback helped me understand what was lacking in my definitions, as I learned that my writing was too technical and not appropriate for the given audience. The peer review process allowed me to critically evaluate another’s work and receive feedback on my own work, helping to refine my writing skills.

Revision Process

After the peer review process, I was tasked with revising my definitions. I am grateful for my team member who provided many great suggestions that I had never noticed before, such as using the written form of numbers instead of the numerical form to increase the formality of the document. Since I received feedback that my writing was too technical, I edited my writing to contain less jargon and provide clear parenthetical definitions for the jargon I did use. This was a great learning experience as I realized certain jargon that were simple terms to me, such as ‘chromosome’ and ‘cell division’, were in reality technical terms that required more explanation for a non-technical audience. I also received feedback that I had a lot of unnecessary information for the given reading situation, especially in my compare and contrast section. I reduced this section and only kept the most important information, which helped to improve my conciseness and ability to write according to a reading situation. This writing process has helped me gain a new perspective about my writing, helping to both recognize flaws and ways to improve. I am excited for future assignments to learn more about technical writing and grow as a writer.

Revised Definition Assignment

Peer’s Review

To: dflach@student.ubc.ca

From: gargkash@student.ubc.ca

Date: January 24, 2022

Subject: ENGL 301 – Invitation to Writing Team

Dear Dylan,

I am writing to invite you to my and Alexander’s writing team for ENGL 301 this semester. After reading your biography and application letter I believe that you would be a great fit for our team.

I enjoyed reading about your passion for nutrition and commitment to increasing the well-being of others through nutrition. My academic interests are centered around biology and computer science, and I think our differing backgrounds will allow us to gain new perspectives and subsequently improve our writing. Furthermore, your experience in long-term care and emphasis on creating a positive group environment makes it clear that you would complement our team and help promote our priorities of strong teamwork and collaboration.

I have attached a word document of my application letter for you to get a better idea of myself. Please let me know if you would be interested in joining our writing team. If you have any questions you can contact me through my email: gargkash@student.ubc.ca. Thank you for your time and consideration, and I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,
Kashish Garg

Enclosure: 301 Kashish Garg Application Letter

To: jworsham@student.ubc.ca

From: gargkash@student.ubc.ca

Date: January 24, 2022

Subject: ENGL 301 – Invitation to Writing Team

Dear Jennifer,

I am writing to invite you to my and Alexander’s writing team for ENGL 301 this semester. After reading your biography and application letter I believe that you would be a great addition to our team. I was impressed to read about your 20 years of professional experience in the dentistry field and am convinced your work ethic and communication skills will complement our own to create a great learning environment.

I have attached a word document of my application letter for you to get a better idea of myself. Please let me know if you would be interested in joining our writing team. If you have any questions you can contact me through my email: gargkash@student.ubc.ca. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,
Kashish Garg

Enclosure: 301 Kashish Garg Application Letter

To: clements.alexander@outlook.com

From: gargkash@student.ubc.ca

Date: January 24, 2022

Subject: Re: ENGL 301 Team Invitation

Dear Alex,

Thank you for your invitation to your writing team for ENGL 301 this semester. After reading your invitation email and attached application letter, I also believe that we would work well together and accept your invitation to your writing team.

I agree that your professional experience with technical documentation would complement my experience with technical lab reports. I also agree that our different academic backgrounds will allow us to share our differing perspectives. I appreciate your suggestion for working together to practice and strengthen our common weakness of lacking conciseness in our writing.

I would like to extend my thanks once again for the invitation and look forward to working with you this semester.

Best,

Kashish Garg

To: Dr. Erika Paterson, ENGL 301 Professor

From: Kashish Garg, ENGL 301 Student

Date: January 20, 2022

Subject: Application Letter Submission to Blog

Please note that I have posted a letter of application for an ENGL 301 writing team on my UBC blog. The application letter includes my:

• interest in a position on a professional writing team
• professional interests: biology and computer science
• academic background: 4th-year biology student
• experience with technical writing: summarizing primary literature and writing lab reports
• volunteer experience: nursing home and high school leadership committee
• writing strengths: structure and focus
• personal traits: reliable and strong teamwork skills
• weaknesses: overthinking and lack of conciseness in writing
• learning philosophy: maintaining a growth mindset
• contact information: gargkash@student.ubc.ca

Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you.

Enclosure: 301 Kashish Garg Application Letter