Kevin's Web Folio

Creating a web folio is really interesting because it’s a way to differentiate myself and showcase myself and my work. Also, this web folio assignment is a very nice way to summarize what was learned in this technical writing course. I’ve used UBC Blogs to host my web folio because it uses WordPress which I’m familiar with having used it before taking this course. Though I’m open and on the lookout for any other sites to host my Web Folio, so if you have any suggestions please let me know! This is my first web folio, so I’m definitely coming into this new and an open mind.

Creating parts of this web folio has been done as part of assignments in this technical writing course, so a lot of this creation is adding visuals, proof-reading past work, and adjusting my work according to peer reviews, and designing the web folio to a specific audience. In terms of an audience, it was a little bit of a challenge to pick an audience because my application package is for a job in Education, which I do enjoy. I’m also very interested in student leadership and research, so it’s hard to decide on what I should do. I ended up deciding to tailor my web folio more towards people in Education because it’s similar to student leadership in the sense that student learning is a priority. For visuals, I wanted to make my web folio, neat and simple while adding enough visuals and colour to make it stand out but not overly done to where it becomes cluttered and confusing.

Something I found interesting while creating my web folio is the parallels it shares with LinkedIn. I think LinkedIn is very structured and serves mainly to connect with others and present yourself, but with a web folio, it feels more individualized where the structure and what you want to present is entirely up to you. It’s almost as if a web folio is an expanded version of LinkedIn in some ways. Another thing that was interesting was having a resume readily available for anyone to see as part of the web folio which makes reading my resume convenient for some readers, whether they might be on their phone or unable to access PDF files. Similarly, having an application package and showcasing your best work allows readers to see your highlights and what your career intentions are while also being very personal since you’re essentially sharing your journey through blog posts and highlights.

Overall, I love the idea of having a web folio as it’s almost like creating your own story or a personal journal that expresses your thoughts, your highlights, and your aspirations. And I think having this web folio as our final assignment is a great way to end this course.

I came across ENGL 301 while looking for an online elective to take this term and this course has been my most enjoyable course so far! I enjoyed how this course strays away from English classes about analyzing literature and focuses on communication between others. Communication is such an important skill especially with how easy it is to connect with people all over the world. The assignments in this course are all applicable to daily life in the professional world so practicing all these techniques in this course benefits us all.

One strength I’ve come across is writing reflections about my work. I think self-reflection is a strength of mine because I’m usually thinking about what things I could have done better, or how these assignments benefit me in the future. There’s always a lesson to learn from past mistakes or shortcomings and by keeping an open mind and being optimistic, I feel more receptive to all feedback. And because of that, I end up having a lot to say about what I think about the course, or things that I can improve on. As a whole, self-reflection also helps me what summarize what I’ve learned so far and also allows me to put my learning into practice which is how I learn best.

That said, there’s a weaknesses that I’ve realized from going through my Evaluation Sheet and struggles I’ve had when writing assignments which is writing with a “You” attitude. Writing with a “You” attitude is a writing style that is very new to me and while I’m glad that I’ve learned this style, it is a challenge to consistently write this way. It’s difficult to consistently write this way since I have to be constantly aware of what I’m writing, keeping the “You” attitude in mind. If I lose focus during writing, this could result in a negative tone in one part of the assignment. 

Overall, what I’ve learned in this course I can take with me in the future. Whether I end up in education, student engagement, or research, I’d be practicing the writing with “You” attitude through working with people, reviewing each other’s work. And also, interacting with people through memos and emails, and writing to cater to a specific audience is something I would be practicing daily in the near future. The skills learned from creating a web folio and application package, will be very beneficial for applying to jobs, creating more application packages and to showcase myself as my career progresses. Additionally, having a LinkedIn profile makes it easier to explore new career opportunities, to build my own brand and to connect with others with similar professional interests.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this course and I am surprised with how much I’ve learned. The best part about this course was being able to put the lessons into practice which is something I feel is missing in a lot of courses I’ve taken. I’m excited to continue practicing what I’ve learned in this course in my career.

In the third unit, we learned how to write with a “You” attitude which focuses on the reader and making them feel that they are important, appreciated, and valued. Through this, we were able to practice this writing style through the memo to Evan and peer review. I felt that these two assignments gave me a bit more confidence before writing my Formal Report because it really put me in the right frame of mind on how to begin writing and how to approach my research project.

A few weeks ago, I started to write up my prompts for gathering data from people I wanted to interview. I had to be polite and clear with what my intentions are, and being as unbiased as possible when obtaining the data. I interviewed five people who were all very insightful and had a lot to say about what training practices worked well. The interviews felt more like a conversation between student leaders who are both passionate about campus involvement, which allowed for very in-depth answers. I was able to gather a lot more information this way and support their thoughts with secondary sources that made the report more complete. As for the surveys done by volunteers, I felt it was important to have their perspective and to give them a voice which may represent what future volunteers would like from training as well. They were also given the opportunity to voice what improvements they would like to see in the future which I took from their responses in coming up with a solution that is will hopefully benefit them and future volunteers in the years to come.

Organizing my report was stressful for me because as a Science student, I’m used to reading papers that had a very definite format that followed: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion. However, this report broke that mold for me and I had to come up with a format that suited my topic. I found this stressful at first but I ended up enjoying it more because it allowed for more creativity, thinking about which pieces of writing would fit better with each other. The textbook gave a really good example in writing a formal report outline that I used to model my own outline. Having an outline to work with made organizing my thoughts while writing the paper a lot more easier. Though, something I found interesting was that my initial outline greatly changed as I started to write my report. Some sections I found had too much content and then I had to adjust my outline making new sections and subsections. Conversely, I found that at times I didn’t have enough material for a particular section and so the outline also served as a guide of what I needed to accomplish, whether it be expanding on my own thoughts, or gathering more resources to support my arguments.

One thing that is stressed about writing scientific papers is turning the research into a story. I wanted to accomplish something similar while I was writing this report, aiming for a logical flow to this story. Generally, I wanted to describe the current state of the problem, then propose a solution based on primary and secondary sources, and close it with a call to action. In terms of consistently writing with “You” attitude, it’s definitely a challenge to write with that style because it’s something that I’ve recently learned and it’s not automatic yet, so while writing the report I was actively thinking about that. I also tried to write as best as I could according to the schedule I had for myself. This allowed me to look back on my work at a later date to still see if the report is cohesive with what I wrote previously. Writing like that allowed me to edit my work with a new mindset each time, so what might have made sense the previous day at times were edited heavily the next day.

Lastly, reviewing Carmen’s work much like reviewing Yuta’s proposal earlier in the term was very insightful. I thought her work brings up a need for financial literacy, especially in a digital age where money can be transferred easily and it can be hard to track where money comes in and out. That said, I was very interested in her report while I was peer reviewing it and after reading her report I wanted to look back at my report and see if the comments and suggestions that I made on her work could be applied to mine. I’ve been keeping in mind what my report would sound like to someone reviewing and being more critical of my work. Despite this there are things that I’ll miss and so having another set of eyes reviewing your work is so beneficial to improving your writing because while something might sound clear to you, might not be clear to another person.

Overall, this was a very challenging unit in terms of writing with the “You” attitude and going out to conduct research, interpreting the data, and compiling it into a report in a limited amount of time especially with exams coming up. But the prep work before the report like the outline, schedule, writing with “You” assignments made the research and report writing much more manageable.

Attached:
ENGL 301 Kevin Gonzalez Formal Report Draft

   In the second unit, we created LinkedIn profiles as a gateway to start networking and resume building over social media. I had created a LinkedIn profile before in high school but never understood its importance back then with limited work and volunteer experience. Revisiting my profile now, I feel that over the past 4 years of my undergraduate career I’ve been able to narrow my professional interests (research and student leadership) and pursue opportunities related to them and because of that, I’m able to display that on my LinkedIn profile to connect with people with similar interests which may open up new career opportunities. Also when I was creating my LinkedIn profile, I think the summary section is a great way to express your personality and professional interests, allowing those viewing your profile to get a good first impression of you and highlight what you want other people to focus on as they go through your profile.

     We have also started to work on our formal reports and as I began to brainstorm ideas for the formal report, my thought process was to first think about which extracurricular activities have enhanced my experience at UBC. Having been part of several clubs on campus, I felt that student leadership was an area I was most interested in as I was part of the Science Undergraduate Society (which aims to support UBC Science students with academic, physical, and social resources they need) for the past 2 years as a Human Resources Coordinator. In this role, I work with a partner and as a team we are tasked with the hiring, training, and management of our volunteers. As I plan to graduate in April, new HR coordinators will have to be hired next year where volunteers need to be a priority to create an enriching training experience for them and as such, I hope to implement a solution to achieve this goal which was the main premise for my proposal.

     In terms of writing the outline, I found that it was different from writing a scientific paper. Something I found that helped me write this outline was when the assignment called for details in the outline and while it was difficult to write at first, I think that it will greatly benefit me when writing my report knowing what to focus on for each section. In terms of report progress, I think I’m in a good position where I have my interviews scheduled, access to volunteers for surveying, compiled a list of secondary sources, and have a detailed outline to begin writing the report. Now the main task is use the data from surveys and interviews to propose a solution in improving volunteer training quality and experience, supplemented by the secondary resources in creating a cohesive report that builds a story.

     The second unit gave us the opportunity to do two peer reviews, one for our formal report proposal and the second for our LinkedIn profile. While reviewing Yuta’s formal report proposal about illegal dumping in North Vancouver, I thought that his proposal was very intriguing since I don’t know much about illegal dumping but thinking about it more, I think that it can cause serious environmental and wildlife effects and is a problem that should be investigated. And when reviewing Carmen’s LinkedIn profile, it was very interesting to see the experiences that another student has had from a different faculty and made me appreciate the different backgrounds and writing styles that each individual has. I think peer reviewing has impacted my view of writing by being more critical of my own work. I noticed that it’s easier to critique work that isn’t my own so now I’m starting to approach my writing by keeping my audience in mind, putting myself in their shoes, and asking myself what would my peer reviewer suggest for improvements.

     Overall, I think this unit has been a great learning experience through making our LinkedIn profiles and developing our own brand, as well as, learning more about current issues in different communities through reading each other’s report proposals and investigating solutions to these problems. I’m looking forward to see how our reports develop and how we can continue to use LinkedIn as a tool to open up new opportunities.

Attached:
Formal Report Proposal – Peer Review
Revised Formal Report Proposal

     As this unit comes to an end, I thought that working on emails, memos, and application letters were a great introduction to this course, as it drew parallels between applying for a job and forming groups to work with for this course. Specifically, this exercise provided an opportunity to write to those outside of our own field of study. After graduation, I can imagine many times in our career where we will have to write to and learn from people across many backgrounds. By having an opportunity to practice we write to our peers here where they can help us improve, I think will be extremely valuable in the future.

     With my background in Biology and interest in infection and diseases, I chose a word that was common to that field, had a lot of scientific depth but could be explained to any audience. The word “inflammation” carries a lot of weight in that there are many interactions between proteins, cells, activating each other when that immune response is triggered. It was a challenge to simplify these interactions and physiological effects while keeping my expanded definition concise but detailed enough to not lose my audience. While writing this assignment, I realized the importance of visualizing the audience that these definitions are to be addressed to, allowing me to focus my writing and maintain consistency throughout.

     As I wrote my first peer review, I thought that it would be very beneficial because certain things can go unnoticed even during proofreading and having an outside perspective of what works well and what things can be improved instills a sense of encouragement and motivation to refine our work. Reviewing Carmen’s definition of a “Prisoner’s Dilemma”, it was a term I’ve heard of but couldn’t explain clearly. Overall, I felt her definition was well written as it was clear, concise, and logical and she accompanied her definition with a visual that was easy to understand and complimented her work beautifully. The textbook was important for me writing this review as it gave me structure to make my peer review effective and helpful while maintaining a friendly, and encouraging tone. During this peer review, I feel like I gained more insight in how I should be approaching my own work when writing and proofreading.

     Regarding the editing process, Yuta was very clear with his suggestions in his peer reviews, pointing out areas that I could improve on. His overall tone was positive and encouraging throughout his peer review, which gives me confidence to continue doing the things I did well and receive his feedback positively. He pointed out that I should include adding detail to some areas of my work to help make things more clear, such as explaining how chemical irritants are neutralized and specifying on how much time inflammation takes to clear up.

     Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the unit so far. I feel that I’ve learned a lot about writing emails and writing for a specific audience and can transition that to the work we’ll do in this course. I’m excited to work with my team as we learn new techniques and put those techniques into practice.

Attached:
Inflammation – Peer Review
Revised Definition of “Inflammation”

Dear Gurjyot,

I have read your application letter and I would like to invite you to become a member of my professional writing team this term.

Your experience in writing numerous reports as part of your co-op, emphasizing information density and clarity will be a great asset to our team. Your strengths of clarity and concise writing is something I wish to learn from. I truly appreciate how your learning philosophy is reflected in how you wrote about your past professional experience, prioritizing the essentials that lead to the most efficient outcome.

I have attached my application letter down for you and I look forward to hearing back from you soon.

All the best,
Kevin Gonzalez

_____

Dear Krystina,

I have read your application letter and I would like to invite you to become a member of my professional writing team this term.

With your vast experience in scientific research and writing several scientific papers, will be important to our team given the careful planning required. Your success in leadership experiences exhibit your ability to work cohesively and bring unity to a group to accomplish the goals are highly valuable.

I have attached my application letter down for you and I look forward to hearing back from you soon.

All the best,
Kevin Gonzalez

______

Dear Yuta,

I have read your application letter and I would like to invite you to become a member of my professional writing team this term.

Your experience in writing across several disciplines while emphasizing precision and clarity will be important as we work on future projects. Furthermore, your professional work as a licensed assistant demonstrates impressive interpersonal and communication skills. I believe that your effort in maintaining consistency, reliability and open-mindedness in your work is a valuable trait to have as a team member and closely aligns with what I strive for as well.

I have attached my application letter down for you and I look forward to hearing back from you soon.

All the best,
Kevin Gonzalez

______

All emails were attached with the following document:
301 Kevin Gonzalez Application Letter

MEMORANDUM

To: Dr. Erika Paterson, ENGL 301 Instructor
From: Kevin Gonzalez, ENGL 301 Student, K.G.
Date: September 13, 2017
Subject: Letter of Application posted

I have posted the letter of application to my blog and attached it to this memo as a docx file.

The application letter includes:

• My academic background in Biology and interests
• A description of my previous work experience
• Summary of strengths and skills
• My learning philosophy

Please let me know if you have any questions or require additional information.

301 Kevin Gonzalez Application Letter

Kevin Gonzalez
2329 West Mall
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4

September 12, 2017

ENGL 301: Technical Writing

The University of British Columbia
2329 West Mall
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4

Dear ENGL 301 students,

Please consider my application for a professional writing team member as advertised on our course webpage. I am a fifth-year Biology student at the University of British Columbia, researching proteins involved in various cancers. I have developed a foundation in research and report writing through my course work and as part of a lab. With my skills, I am confident that I would make a strong candidate for your writing team.

I have a year of experience at a biotechnology company as part of my co-op experience. As a research assistant there, I was part of several projects in a team which required detailed documentation of the experiments done. Through documentations and data obtained from experiments, I wrote reports with my peers that detailed the objective, methodology, results, and analysis of results. These reports included the organization and annotation of the data to clearly our findings and interesting leads which would be later discussed for designing further experiments.

Outside of my lab experience, I was also a Senior Orientation Leader for UBC Orientations where I worked actively with a team to develop aspiring student leaders in building a respectful and inclusive community for new to UBC students which includes time-conscious planning, organizing and, implementing activities for leaders in preparation for Imagine Day and for students on Imagine Day and the remainder of their first term. The interpersonal and management skills I have developed over these experiences allow me to work cooperatively with others and can be used to support the writing team.

My learning philosophy is centered around confidence through practice. I believe that by putting the time in to practice new techniques, skills, and think about the concepts involved, it builds confidence. I feel that confidence in yourself to utilize new skills creates positivity and promotes efficiency and further learning. I also believe learning from others is as important as new ideas and various opinions can solve problems and improve work quality.

I would enjoy the opportunity to discuss potential opportunities to be a part of your writing team. You can reach me at kevingonzalez224@gmail.com. Thank you for taking the time to read my letter of application.

Sincerely,

Kevin Gonzalez

301 Kevin Gonzalez Application Letter

About ENGL 301

Effective communication is vital when interacting with others in various disciplines on a daily basis. English 301 is a course that aims to improve students’ written and online communication skills in business and professional settings across a range of forms. Specifically, this course focuses on providing students with the strategies and techniques for effective communication while being engaged with peers to improve document writing and analysis in the forms of abstracts, proposals, applications, reports, and emails. Additionally, students in this course will be involved in developing a Web folio, presenting our resume, cover letters, and references. As a whole, students are expected to work independently, actively consulting the instructor, and collaboratively with peers.

By taking this course, I hope to improve my written and online communication in professional and business settings. I feel that this course is extremely useful in daily life as job searches are dependent on your resumes, cover letters, and references so having the ability to cohesively write and organize these documents is beneficial. Also, we will be communicating with various people in our careers so knowing what to write in an email, or a report, or a peer review and how to write them will largely help in getting the main point across. In all, this course will allow me to practice these skills with my peers to which I can apply what I’ve learned in my career.