Category Archives: Uncategorized

The formal report has been the bane of my existence for the past few weeks. Coordinating with the company to get the information required, obtaining survey results and doing secondary research has been quite difficult. Admittedly, I am currently driving across the country and trying to complete the formal report at the same time as other work and school commitments. It was/is surprisingly difficult to obtain secondary data on paper wastage and reduction techniques. It seems to e a very underexplored area of waste in general. Further, it was interesting to learn that less than 10% of all paper that is “recycled” can actually be turned into recycled material. Quite shocking to know how big of an industry paper is in general and how little has been done to reduce paper waste in our modern society. I wonder if this will become more of a mainstream issue in the coming years now that we have technology that would allow most businesses to go paperless. Further to this, it seems that paper reduction techniques are not talked about or publicized heavily. Even when offices/business go “paperless” there seems to be little announcement about it.

The peer review process is also a challenge. I find it difficult to think that the peer review will be reviewed by the boss and not the person that wrote the report as I don’t do this in my professional practice and have never done it before in my academic life either. This process is time consuming and frustrating to go through every aspect of someone’s report and identify strengths and weaknesses. Though a tedious process, I can see the value of this in heavy writing based industries such as news reporting and in report writing in business. I question how many companies actually use this technique though because when I am waiting on reports from companies I want them ASAP and the employees are usually so busy that I doubt they do this opting instead to accept minor mistakes in an effort for timeliness. With the younger generation wanting everything to be almost immediate, there is little time for tedious peer review processes.

Enclosure: ENGL301 Formal Report Draft

This unit was very intriguing to go through. I have used LinkedIn in m professional networking for a number of years and truthfully, haven’t explored it fully or found very much functionality from it except for keeping in contact with colleagues or other students that I didn’t want to add to my personal social networks. Researching LinkedIn best practices was quite interesting because it opened to my eyes to how poorly I was using LinkedIn and gave me some ideas for how to use it better moving forwards. Since learning about this, I had to do a research project and connect with people in various industries for another class. Using the methodologies I learned in this course, I received a better response rate from my connection requests overall and was able to complete the assignment.

My report progress is coming along nicely. Working inside the organization I am doing the report on will certainly be helpful to gather information. I am interested to see the results of the survey and see if they align with my personal hypothesis. Admittedly, it was a bit difficult to come up with a domain for the feasibility study, but since confirming my project domain with my boss, I am excited to see where it leads.

The peer review process is challenging. It is hard to not give your personal opinions about their topic and instead to focus on their writing. I thought I was a strong writer coming into this course but doing the peer review process has showed me that I still have a long ways to go in terms of my technical writing abilities. Even with my current job and writing emails all day, every day, I still struggle with some of the formatting and layout of the memos and assignments. It is nice having peer feedback of your assignments rather than just getting the reviews done by the professor.

Link to Peer Review: https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-99c-2021wc/2022/02/14/review-of-formal-report-proposal-for-paper-reduction-system/

Enclosure: ENGL301 Formal Report Proposal

To: The Commas, ENGL301 – Writing Team

From: Ken Colosie, Fellow Writing Team Member

Date: February 11, 2022

Subject: Tips and Tricks for Success on LinkedIn

LinkedIn can be a great tool if you know how to use it. Admitedly, I do not use it very well currently in my professional practice. I did some research on tips and tricks that can help you be successful on LinkedIn which I included below in point form. I also included a link to the website where I found the information.

Tips and Tricks:

• Always include a hyper personalized note when sending a connection request to someone. By this, it means always ensure you address them by name, if you have time, add something specifically related to them to the message. Never send impersonalized mass messages.
• Use search filters to tailor your people search results to people whom you are interested in connecting with.
• Attend online networking events from LinkedIn.
• Scrape networking events by searching one related to your field and sending connection invites to the attendees.
• Add contacts that you at least have a small thing in common with.
• Update your profile to include a photo that personifies you in a professional setting. Update your profile regularly and include relevant personal information.
• Write and share content on linked in frequently and if someone comments, make sure you reply.
• Sharing other people’s posts will make them want to share yours in turn, which will increase your network size.
• Once you have made a connection, start up a meaningful conversation.
• Use personality and humour in your messages, no one wants to talk to a robot!

Researching this has definitely changed my views on LinkedIn and I hope this helps you in your professional endeavours!

Works Cited:

“How to Network on LinkedIn – 10 Do’s and Don’ts for You to Consider.” Expandi, 15 Nov. 2021, https://expandi.io/blog/how-to-network-on-linkedin/.

First Draft Analysis of Definition Assignment:

The definitions assignment was quite challenging because I had never had to write any sort of definition in my previous academic or professional career. Of course, throughout my professional career as a Strata Manager, there are times when I need to explain processes, policies, or terms but this is usually done in a verbal or email format and a lot less formally. Therefore, it was shocking the complexity required behind a full expanded definition and the requirements we needed to provide for a simple term such as Strata Corporation. In my world, this term is well known, everyone who lives in a Strata or manages Strata Corporations is fully aware of the term, however, I have met many people who are unfamiliar with what a strata corporation is. It was fun to expand on something that I have never thought about before and is very relevant in my career because I have never thought of it as a term that needs defining before.

Reflection on the Peer Review Process:

The peer review process was simple and effective. Both my peer and I were able to provide positive and critical feedback to one another which helped our writing. I do struggle sometimes with conciseness and my peer was able to point out a few sections where I could be more concise and also some areas that needed expanding such as additional terms within the definition that a non informed reader may not be aware of. My peer also suggested adding a second visual to differentiate between two terms and I hadn’t thought of using both the differentiation technique in line with the visual technique in this way.

Revised Draft Comments:

I was able to integrate my peers comments into my revised definition. I added an extra visual which was easy to do, yet very effective to the overall definition. I also used more concise language where my peer told me to and also expanded in places that needed further explanation. It was hard to do a second version of the definition and provide many changes because there were only a few minor comments given. I like the overall peer review process because it is very hard to critique your own work because we are biased that our own work is perfect.

https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-99c-2021wc/2022/02/11/revised-expanded-definition-strata-corporation/

https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-99c-2021wc/2022/01/31/peer-review-report-on-expanded-definition-of-strata-corporation/

From: kcolos94@student.ubc.ca

Date: January 24, 2022

Subject: RE: Invitation to Join Professional Writing Team

Good evening Duffy,

Thank you for your email offer to join your writing team this semester.

I would be please to accept a roll within your team and look forward to collaborating with you and our other group members on the various projects and writing requirements.. I believe that with my technical business skills and your formatting abilities, we can achieve success working as a team. It would be great to achieve something from this course that we could both use in a practical business setting moving forwards.

I am eager to start working with you and your team and look forward to connecting with you soon. Please connect with me at 778-829-5301 so we can begin a group chat for our team.

Looking forward to a great semester,

Kenny Colosie

3^rd Year BBRE Student

Sauder School of Business

c. 778-829-5301

Kcolos94@student.ubc.ca

To: jkuan99@student.ubc.ca

From: kcolos94@student.ubc.ca

Date: January 24, 2022

Subject: RE: Invitation to Join Professional Writing Team

Good evening Jackson,

Thank you for your email offer to join your writing team this semester.

I would be please to accept a roll within your team and look forward to collaborating with you and our other group members on the various projects and writing requirements. I appreciate your honesty in that you have limited business world experience. I believe that with my technical business skills and your formatting abilities, we can achieve success working as a team. It would be great to achieve something from this course that we could both use in a practical business setting moving forwards.

I am eager to start working with you and your team and look forward to connecting with you soon. Please connect with me at 778-829-5301 so we can begin a group chat for our team.

Looking forward to a great semester,

Kenny Colosie

3^rd Year BBRE Student

Sauder School of Business

c. 778-829-5301

Kcolos94@student.ubc.ca

To: msa176@students.cs.ubc.ca

From: kcolos94@student.ubc.ca

Date: January 24, 2022

Subject: RE: Invitation to Join Professional Writing Team

Good evening MinZhang,

Thank you for your email offer to join your writing team this semester.

I would be please to accept a roll within your team and look forward to collaborating with you and our other group members on the various projects and writing requirements. I appreciate your honesty in that we have a similar weakness of formatting complex documents but with our combined effort, I am sure that we can overcome that and develop a better formatting skills by the end of the course. It would be great to achieve something from this course that I could use in a practical business setting.

I too am looking to complete assignments as early as possible and stay on schedule. I am looking forward to working with you and the rest of our team. Please connect with me at 778-829-5301 so we can begin a group chat for our team.

Looking forward to a great semester,

Kenny Colosie

3^rd Year BBRE Student

Sauder School of Business

c. 778-829-5301

Kcolos94@student.ubc.ca

MEMORANDUM

To: Dr. Erika Paterson, English 301 Professor

From: Kenneth Colosie – English 301 Student

Date: January 19^th, 2022

Subject: Application Letter Posted on Blog

Hi Professor Paterson,

Please be advised that I have posted my letter of application on my student blog yesterday, on January 18^th, 2022.

A summary of the letter can be found herewith:

• I am applying to join a team of three other students to form a collaborative writing group.
• I have listed credentials such as work experience within Strata Management, academic experience within Sauder School of Business and other interrelated skills such as;
  • Attention to detail
  • Effective time management
  • Professionalism
  • Communication

I hope that you have a chance to review the attached application letter in it’s entirety.

Please reach out to me with any questions or comments you may have.

Sincerely,

Ken Colosie

Enclosure: 301 Kenneth Colosie Application Letter

Kenneth Colosie

12259 227^th Street,

Maple Ridge, B.C. V2X 6J8

January 18, 2022

English 301 – Fellow Technical Writing Students

Sauder School of Business

2053 Main Mall

Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z2

Dear Fellow Technical Writing Students,

Please consider this letter as my application to join your team during winter term-two of 2022 in order to collaborate and produce effective pieces of written correspondence and other technical writing. I believe that my academic experience, effective communication skills, work ethic, determination to succeed and related work experience make me a strong team candidate.

For the last six years I have been working as a Strata Manager for Associa B.C., REMI Realty and West Coast Property Management. In this roll, I answer a number of emails daily, write internal memos, prepare meeting agendas, minutes and draft letters to owners. Additionally I prepare budgets, approve invoices, schedule trades to attend to building issues and review financial data. This position requires professionalism at all times, effective time management skills and attention to details which I believe are all important in a group setting.

Academically, I am a third year student in the Bachelor of Business in Real Estate Degree program and hold a Diploma in Urban Land Economics from Sauder School of Business, UBC. I have obtained my licenses for Strata Management, Rental Property Management, Real Estate Trading Services and a Managing Broker license.

Strengths:                                                                      Weaknesses:

Attention to detail                                                            Using casual language in the wrong setting sometimes

Business world experience                                             Formatting of complex documents

I believe with my academic achievements and real world experience in this field, I can be an asset to any team looking for an additional group member. I can be reached by email at kcolos94@student.ubc.ca. I look forward to hearing from you to discuss this opportunity further.

Sincerely,

Kenneth Colosie

301 Kenneth Colosie Application Letter