Unit one of English 301 consists of three sections, whereby students were required to set up their blogs, form writing teams for collaborations, draft a definitions assignment, and then peer review their teammates’ definition assignment.
The ability to communicate professionally is a vital aspect of being employed. This can consist of explaining a technical term that you, yourself, are extensively knowledgeable about, to an individual (a teammate, client, and beyond!) with limited expertise on the subject. Through the definitions assignment, we learned how to properly define a technical term to an audience with limited knowledge on the subject.
Additionally, as a working professional, the ability to provide constructive feedback to one’s peers and coworkers is invaluable. Our textbook provided a helpful example for how to properly provide constructive feedback in a tactful way. Reviews should always be accompanied by constructive criticism — that is, it should refer to concrete elements that can be improved, and accompany this with resources or alternatives if possible. Importantly, reviews should be friendly, encouraging, and considerate. While reviewing Jie’s assignment, I made sure to be tactful in my criticisms, and to include concrete examples of areas that the assignment could be improved.
Having my definitions assignment reviewed by my teammate Jie helped me find issues with my writing that I would have otherwise overlooked. Jie was able to help me increase clarity within my assignment by pointing out ambiguity in areas that were unclear or may have caused confusion to the reader, such as a lack of transition sentences. Another important note was that the purpose of the assignment was to provide a simple explanation of a technical term to a non-technical reader. I realized that beyond my original explanation, I could have another example or case in which algorithms are used, which would increase interest in the subject as well as comprehension.
Below I have posted a link to Jie Su’s peer review of my definitions assignment, and attached the revised version of that assignment.
https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-98a-2020sa/2020/06/10/peer-review-for-kathryn-simone/