The final reflection is a self-assessment of weaknesses, strengths, and future goals from the ENGL 301 course. My final reflection is below.

Weaknesses

Writing is a general strength of mine, but this course challenged my writing style. Self-editing is an area that is challenging. Reviewing personal work from the reader’s point of view and editing to ensure complete understanding is an area I continue to work on. Documents early in the term lacked a YOU attitude, a skill that was new for me. Another area in the course that was challenging was the self-reflection. Reflecting on the process of learning, writing, and peer reviewing was something I had not previously done. Reflecting grew to be an assignment that I benefitted from, improving my self-awareness during the assignments.

Strengths

Using time effectively is a skill that enhances my ability to complete tasks and follow guidelines successfully. Writing in an active, positive tone came easily and my work demonstrates the ability to maintain the tone in my writing. The peer reviewing process was not an area originally thought of as a strength, but I enjoyed the process. Learning from peers and gaining a different point of view improved my learning throughout the course. Receiving constructive feedback can be difficult, but my peers provided excellent feedback without a negative tone. Writing peer reviews developed my writing skills further, ensuring that reviews were concise and constructive.

Future Goals

After completing this course, my confidence in professional writing has improved my communication abilities in dental hygiene beyond a clinical provider. The ability to write formal reports, memos, and emails improves communication in my current position, but also readies me for more formal positions in the field. If I attend graduate school, my technical writing will improve future assignments and communications with peers and professors.

In unit four the final assignment was to make a web folio that included a resume, an application package, and best works from the course. This project provided an opportunity to reflect on past work and progress through the term. My reflection on creating my web folio is below.

Editing Best Works

Reviewing the documents for the best works page  allowed me to see my progress through the term. Editing previous documents was tedious because it entailed reviewing the document and the guidelines to ensure the best document was published. If the work was not edited directly following the feedback, it was difficult to view the assignment with the same point of view. Thankfully, many of the documents were edited following feedback so the process was manageable. While reviewing the work less editing was required for each assignment, demonstrating the skills I have developed in professional writing during the term.

Creating

Building the web folio was challenging. Technological skills are not my strongest suit and made the process more time consuming. Posting pages that include hyperlinks and images that were appropriate took a great deal of time. Formatting the web folio to be user friendly, yet professional was difficult. After formatting the pages and publishing it was easier to view the site as a prospective reader, allowing minor edits to improve the sites readability. The skills gained during this assignment will be useful for any future career path or job application.

Final Remarks

The finished web folio provides readers with a variety of professional documents and demonstrates technological skills. I am happy with the results of the web folio and believe it is a good representation of my technical writing. Overcoming difficulties during the process improved my confidence in writing and creativity for future projects.

The assignment for unit three focused on drafting the formal report and reviewing the work of a peer. The process was rewarding and challenging. My reflection on the assignment is below.

Researching

The research process was enjoyable. Researching is a personal favourite step of writing any document. The topic of mental health in dentistry was interesting to learn about and online databases provided relevant studies. The challenging part during the research was ensuring that the studies were credible and applicable. The other challenge was engaging those in the dental profession and gathering survey data. Survey responses were voluntary and did not yield as many responses as planned, limiting the generalizability of the data.

Organizing

Following the outline for the report was a useful guide during the organizational process, but revisions to the structure of the document were required. Organizing the collected data was difficult early in the process because much of the information could be used in separate subsections, creating a repetitive document. Formatting the report was technologically difficult and required learning about the capabilities of the word processing software. The process provided valuable formatting experience for future projects.

Writing

The biggest hurdle during the writing process was determining how much data to include since technical writing should be concise but not exclude important information. Writing for the reader with enough information but not too much is an area for improvement in the draft. Creating useful visuals was another technological challenge. Learning how and where to input the data while ensuring readability took time, but useful skills were gained from overcoming the challenge.

Peer Review

In unit two the first assignment was researching LinkedIn and preparing a summary memo. The second assignment was writing a formal report proposal and outline. The reflections on the LinkedIn memo and the report proposal and outline are below.

LinkedIn

One of the assignments in Unit 2 was researching LinkedIn and preparing a memo  with useful information. This assignment was eye-opening for me as I have not previously used LinkedIn. Starting a page on LinkedIn is no longer as daunting after completing the assignment. Effectively using LinkedIn will be challenging without experience but using the information in the memo will lead to success on the professional networking site.

Report Proposal and Outline

Another assignment was preparing a report proposal  and outline. Brainstorming the topic was not difficult as I am passionate about a variety of professional topics. Visualizing how to organize the topic for a formal report was challenging but after revising the document it began to take shape. It is unclear how the collected research will be put into the report but using a timeline is helpful. Following a timeline allows for a step-by-step process to manage this sizeable assignment.

Peer Review

The peer review process in this unit was more in depth than the previous unit. Reviewing others is challenging because the tone can become negative. Providing honest feedback that is critical yet positive will yield an improved experience. Using checklists to identify areas of strengths or areas for improvement was very helpful during the process. My writing is developing professionally and technically. Sometimes my writing contains too little information leaving the reader to interpret the document causing miscommunications. Ensuring readers have enough information while being concise is an area I will continue to focus on.

In unit one the assignment was to write a technical definition for a non-technical audience. This was a great way to begin the course and learn about writing styles and the peer review process. Below are my reflections from the definition assignment.

Writing Technical Definitions

The assignment for technical definitions  in ENGL 301 was a great learning experience. I had not previously written extensive definitions, but it is a valuable skill to have gained. I was able to define a technical dental term, endodontic therapy, using parenthetical, sentence, and expanded definitions. It was challenging to write for a non-technical audience in language that was easy to understand. Avoiding dental jargon to improve readability was difficult at times. The use of parenthetical definitions through the document was a good tactic to reduce or explain other terms while writing. Using multiple expansion methods was interesting. Writing the definition with the specific methods provided guidance and direction for the assignment. After exploring the expansion methods, it was clear that unconsciously we use this method regularly in the dental field. This assignment broadened my understanding of the importance of definitions and determining your audience.

Peer Review

The process to review  a team member’s definitions and receive feedback was helpful. Reviewing my team member’s assignment provided me the opportunity to see areas of improvement in my assignment. My reviewer provided areas of improvement in my work with examples, and I was able to see my definitions in a different perspective. The critiques were useful as I find it difficult to review and edit personal work without bias. I appreciated the feedback both positive and constructive. Using the provided worksheet was a great tool to review and edit both the work of others and personal work. I was able to provide feedback that was constructive such as editing for conciseness and organization. I look forward to using the peer review process on other assignments to continue to enhance my writing and editing skills.

Revisions

After the peer review, I edited according to the feedback. I was able to look for grammatical errors that were noted and important. The critique about the images was helpful and provided a different point of view than my own. Finding images for this technical term was difficult and I was unable to find improved images. This piece of criticism was crucial, so I edited the image to reduce the terms and edited my writing to include a more precise explanation. The use of jargon was also a constructive criticism. I re-read my definition and I adapted words that were too technical by adding parentheses or omitting technical words. I have learned a lot through this process and will be able to use all that I have gained from this assignment in my professional life.