On this page, you will find some of my best writing pieces from the technical writing course (ENGL 301) I’ve taken. You can find PDF versions for each piece below!
Definitions Assignment
This assignment was focused on writing three types of definitions (parathetical, sentence, and expanded) for a technical term (a word used within your field of expertise) that could be understood by a non-technical audience. I chose to define “inflammation” as it is quite complex involving many molecules interacting with each other but could also be defined succinctly as redness, heat, swelling, and pain.
PDF: Definition of “Inflammation”
Formal Report Proposal
In this proposal, we were assigned to identify an area of improvement in a community we belong to and propose a solution for a formal report. This proposal helped to organize what we want to investigate, what could be improved, how we will conduct the study, and recommend a course of action. My proposal focuses on improving volunteer training in the UBC Science Undergraduate Society as student leadership is something I’m interested in.
PDF: Formal Report Research Proposal
Complaint Letters
With this assignment, my goal was to write a complaint letter that persuades the audience to respond in a certain way and to write a bad news letter that responds to the complaint. This assignment is important because you can find yourself on either side of this situation in any career and practicing writing these types of letters now is beneficial for the future.
PDF: Complaint and Bad News Letters
Peer Review – Definitions
This peer review is the first peer review I’ve done for this course. Here, I review the term “Prisoner’s Dilemma” using techniques suggested by the course textbook. This first peer review is important to me because this is where I first learned how structure and write a peer review, developing a working relationship with the writer rather than going through a document, making comments, and not making a connection with the writer.