Introduction
Unit 2:2 consisted of the beginning of developing the Formal Report, the survey, the formal report outline, as well as an additional project on LinkedIn. This project helped me develop my writing skills as well as furthered my understanding of different functions of LinkedIn.
For Assignment 2:2, we were tasked to write a blog post for our group on the best practice of using LinkedIn. As a business major and currently looking for a coop opportunity in computer science, I found this task to be extremely relevant for my stage of life. Due to the lasting effects of the pandemic, and as a lot of the roles for software development are remote, the main mode of professional communication is LinkedIn; therefore, I have gained so much applicable insights that I could utilize personally. From the research, I found many tips such as the importance of comments, adding in marketing posts, and how to write a better profile overall. Before this task, I did not associate LinkedIn with a form of social media where I should consider engagements – it was a mere resume. This assignment was a realization that this was a form of social media like Facebook but just more professional. It also helped me realize that LinkedIn was much more personal than I originally depicted. Moreover, I was able to learn how to increase engagement, which could help increase my spectrum of a professional network. I am happy to have researched and learned about LinkedIn.
Drafting report proposal and outline reflection
When I started brainstorming the formal report proposal, I was sitting at UBC nest. As I read the outline required for the formal proposal, I reflected on topics that I was passionate about. Firstly, I am a foodie. Secondly, I am a student with a budget for monthly spending and food. These two components helped to choose the topic with ease as it was an issue that I was passionate about. As it was a daily task pondering what I should eat on campus within a tight budget, I knew that I should draft the formal report proposal about this topic. As a computer science student, I am also thinking about capabilities that the school can develop to help students’ lives. Therefore, I thought about researching the problem and devising a solution where UBC could develop a centralized system that offers all the menu items within different price points. Although I did make a critical mistake in not including the intended audience for the report, I was happy to have written a proposal that taps into my current passions.
After the topic was decided, drafting the outline and the survey was a smooth process as I had thought about this issue previously. I wanted to capture current student’s budget situation and reflect the hardships in the proposal. For methodology, I knew that survey was a great tool to understand current student’s situations without bias. The survey questions were drafted with details that satisfied my personal curiosity for the topic and details that were needed in developing a solution. The outline also helped me reorganize my thoughts and helped me devise an action plan for the following weeks.
Reflection on Ben’s Peer Review for my proposal:
Through the peer review process, and the instructor feedback, I found out that I missed a rather huge portion of my project. I have not added in the Audience Description. When I was adding the audience description, I also noticed that the proposal could be improved by considering components about what the end audience would desire to read and be curious about. After correcting, I was able to add more details that I needed to include. For example, I tried to consider, “why would they care about this research?” and tried to incorporate more details concerning the lack of visibility of affordable options and how it contrasts from their budget to help the end audience understand the gravity of the problem.
What I learned about reviewing the team’s forum
The peer-review process was a great learning experience. I saw that Ben had multiple solutions to his proposal to improve the quality of accessibility of financial literacy resources available to UBC students. As I only brainstormed, one concrete solution, I wanted to add other solutions for the problem to improve the quality of the report. By reading Ben’s report, I also saw his intended audience which helped me develop my intended audience as well. It was overall a great learning opportunity and a period of self-reflection as well.