Lea Salamanca’s English 301 Blog

Researching, organizing and writing a formal report are the main tasks for unit 3. Doing the tasks involved in fulfilling the requirements of this unit teaches the value of time organization, practice, and self-editing.

Researching and writing a report in an academic or office workplace setting is interesting. My report is about a small business, and I found the research part of the process fun as it involves going outside and talking to people. However, I find writing reports frustrating. I grew up in the small business world where writing lengthy reports is not part of our work, except for making end-of-the-day numerical sales reports and taxes. I took a long time writing the final report draft. Fortunately, I spent a long time working as a caterer, which taught me to start doing tasks early. Being late in the catering industry costs a lot of money. Doing tasks early is a habit that I learned in my other career, which I found helpful in tackling big unfamiliar tasks like researching and writing a lengthy final report.

Learning how to use Qualtrics for surveys is excellent because I can see a variety of ways to use the software in gathering information in the food and nutrition field. Taking the time to explore and learn how to use the survey analysis, such as cross analysis, is worth the effort. I will be using this software to pursue different areas of research in the future. 

While researching marketing research report examples, I found it fascinating to discover how beautiful marketing visuals have become available on the internet. I think that combining the eye-catching visuals in nutrition field research or making infographics can make reports or awareness campaigns appealing. Although I couldn’t use a lot of visuals for my report, discovering the different software available while doing this project enhanced my marketing skills. 

Although challenging, writing a lengthy report is an excellent way to practice the different topics taught in other units, such as writing concisely. I found doing this task helpful in finishing other writing assignments for other classes. Moving forward, I will create a writing guide that summarizes writing tips from the text and from the Instructor’s blog, which hopefully can help me write faster and better in the future.

I used the textbook to write the report draft, and for writing my partner’s peer review, I used the Instructor’s blog. During the peer review process, I realized that I committed similar mistakes, such as writing in the past tense and writing unnecessary information for the reader. The peer-review process made me realize that the marketing analysis report is similar to selling products and that presenting the information positively is essential. I also learned through this exercise how much I write in the passive voice, and changing the sentences to active voice is challenging. Developing writing skills will take time, and practicing these skills is beneficial in communicating in the workplace. Self-editing is an excellent way to practice and improve my writing skills. 

Overall, although this unit’s tasks are challenging and involve a lot of work, I appreciate all the new writing skills and techniques that I discovered and developed while doing these activities.

Enclosure: FormalReportDraft_LASalamanca

In unit 2, our task involved researching a LinkedIn profile and preparing a report proposal and outline. Through these tasks, I recognize the importance of finding one’s purpose for any task, choosing the right audience, and time management in writing workplace documents. 

While researching making a LinkedIn profile, I recognized the similarity between managing a company website and a LinkedIn profile. One of the reasons for my previous catering company’s success was finding the right audience for the company’s website. By consistently making time to manage the website through observing how my company’s clients look for caterers, I discovered that always linking and tagging three pieces of event photos with the venues were the most cost-efficient way to attract customers to the company website. Managing a LinkedIn profile works the same way. After setting a goal, determining a target audience, and creating a profile, one must commit to improving one’s profile consistently. There are various strategies that people can use for using LinkedIn, depending on their goals. I noticed that people who found success using LinkedIn were committed to making the social networking site work to achieve their goals. Building a good profile and achieving networking success takes time and effort. 

I found brainstorming and creating a report proposal a challenge. Assessing whether or not the topic that I have chosen was appropriate for the length required for the formal report is difficult. I found the instructor’s comments about my chosen topic helpful. This experience stresses the value of consulting experts when doing unfamiliar tasks in the workplace. However, in a real workplace scenario, helpful comments are not freely given; one needs to learn how to ask for feedback from experts. I find that the exercises in this class interweave politeness into sentences which people with advanced academic degrees appreciate. Learning how to write correspondences such as memos is an advantage that I can include in my workplace toolbox when communicating with an audience with advanced degrees. 

Reviewing my peer partner’s proposal was a good opportunity to practice writing how to give feedback. It reveals how writing feedback requires a different set of writing skills compared to writing literature reviews. Considering how my peer partner will interpret the tone of my peer review of his work was a good challenging experience. I appreciate how the peer review examples were broken down into different categories, making it easier to create feedback systematically. My peer’s review of my report proposal helped highlight my strengths and weaknesses as a writer. His feedback showed my tendency to miss details towards the latter half of the proposal. Having opportunities to write workplace documents in this course, such as making report proposals and creating formal reports, helped identify the skills that I need to improve as a writer such as checking details and improving my vocabulary and grammar. Creating concise sentences is one of the skills that I intend to improve on in the future.

Writing the outline for my formal report highlights the importance of organization and time management. I do feel overwhelmed by the formal report and creating deadlines for each task reduces my anxiety as I go through this course.

Overall, Unit 2 highlighted areas where I am skilled at such as knowing how to set concrete goals for a website and selecting the right audience. Those skills can be applied in technical writing. In writing the report proposal and creating a peer review, I realized that I need to improve writing different workplace reports and practice writing concisely.

Enclosure 1: Revised report proposal  Formal Report Proposal_LASalamanca 2

Enclosure 2: Peer review received for the proposal https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-99a-2021wa/2021/10/16/peer-review-of-vegetable-packaging-formal-report-proposal/

 

In this unit, our task is to choose a complex term within our profession for a non-technical audience. I decided to define Vitamin K to online readers without a science background. My purpose is to encourage the audience to increase their Vitamin K intake after reading the post.

Writing process

Having a clearly defined purpose and audience was the most critical task in the writing process. It helped me select the appropriate words, length, and methods of expansion for my definition. I chose to give a brief history, food sources, functions and visuals with bold captions to help the readers remember the key features of Vitamin K. As a nutrition science student, the definitions and functions of vitamins in the lectures, journals, and textbooks use scientific terms. Choosing the right words to define Vitamin K that people without a science background can understand was challenging, and I found myself veering off from my focus a few times during the task. I had to remind myself of my paper’s purpose several times while writing the expanded definition to ensure that I only included details that would not confuse the readers or make them lose interest in reading the whole document. 

Peer review process

I found receiving and giving feedback insightful in the peer review part of this assignment. As an ESL student, I have always thought that people with no science background understand the word “coagulation” because there was a word in Filipino that directly means coagulation that we often use in cooking. However, my peer review partner pointed out that people without a health science background may not understand the word coagulation and suggested a different way of defining the word coagulation that my intended audience understands. I found her suggestion culturally insightful because I realized the complexity of the English language and how asking for feedback could help me find the right words to reach my target audience. My peer review partner also gave me useful feedback regarding the consistency of my use of labels which helped me realize how small details matter in improving my writing.  As for giving feedback, this assignment helped me understand how organizing my peer review of my partner’s work into different categories such as clarity, organization and layout made my peer review look polite, formal and professional. 

Editing process

Having the opportunity to edit my work helped me realize my strengths and weaknesses in technical writing. Overall, I conveyed my message about Vitamin K to an online audience well by using plenty of visuals that help the readers remember its function and food sources. However, I realized that I needed to slow down and check that the details in my document such as visual aid labels and sentence structures were consistent throughout the document during the editing process. After editing my work, I found that the consistency in the format of the final document made it look more professional and helped me convey my purpose to my target audience more effectively than the first draft of this assignment.

Overall, I found that this exercise was a good learning experience. Reading the textbook was very helpful in breaking the task of writing definitions and peer reviews. I could apply the writing concepts smoothly, and I am eager to use the writing guides as a reference in my future courses and work.

Here is the link to my edited post: https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-99a-2021wa/2021/09/29/write-three-definition-by-lea-ang-salamanca/

Here is the link to my peer’s review of my assignment: https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-99a-2021wa/2021/10/05/peer-review-of-vitamin-k/

Type of email: Invitation to join the professional writing team

To: sidney@ssidney.com

Date: September 19, 2021

Subject: Invitation to become a member of English 301 writing team

Dear Sidney,

I hope that you are doing well. My name is Lea, and I am inviting you to join my professional writing team. Your ability in writing documents with clarity and creative writing skills complements my various work experiences in writing multiple business manuals for different organizations. As indicated in my application letter, I am results-driven and highly motivated. Like you, I believe that punctuality and studiousness are essential in team collaborations.

I am looking forward to working with you. If you have any questions, please send me an email at lholdo00@student.ubc.ca. I attached my application letter with this email. <301 Lea Ang Salamanca Application Letter>

Best,

Lea Ang Salamanca

 

---

Type of email: Thank you email for being accepted to be part of the writing team

To: noahsaini@live.ca, sidney@ssidney.com

Date: September 20, 2021

Subject: English 301 writing team membership

Dear Noah and Sidney,

Thank you very much for accepting my application to join your professional writing team. I appreciate your respective experiences in customer sales and creative writing, which will help me improve my technical communication skills within the Canadian context. My writing and collaborating with various professionals while studying and working in Manila and Australia complements your skills and expertise. Our variety of skills widens the team’s ability to undertake multiple projects in this course.

I look forward to working with both of you this semester.

Best,

Lea Ang Salamanca

---

Type of email: Response to a writing team invitation pending the team’s approval

To: daniel.tsui@ubc.ca

Date: September 20, 2021

Subject: English 301 writing membership

Dear Daniel,

Thank you very much for your invitation and appreciation of my work. Likewise, I am fascinated with your extensive experience in music technology and work experience as a Research and Teaching Assistant. I admire your attention to detail and perseverance, both essential qualities to succeed in your field and apply well in our technical writing course.

I am currently in a team with Sidney Singh and Noah Saini, who I have cc’d on this email. I sent them an email to consider your application, and I will let you know if there is still an opening in our team as soon as possible.

Best,

Lea

 

EMAIL MEMORANDUM

To: Dr. Erika Paterson, Department of English, University of British Columbia

From: Lea Ang Salamanca, Student of ENG 310 Technical Writing

Date: September 20, 2021

Subject: 301 Technical writing blog posting

Dear Dr. Paterson,

I have completed posting my writing team letter of application in the 301 Technical writing blog. Here is the link to my application letter: 301 Lea Ang Salamanca Application Letter

Below is a summary of my professional interests, previous experiences in the field of business and volunteer activities:

• Writing business-related documents such as kitchen and business operations manuals, client contracts, professional emails, and company websites for eight years.
• Designing a website for a small catering company specializing in Scandinavian cuisine, resulting in a 300% increase in sales.
• Creating a business operations manual for a small street food company in Manila that expanded into a fast-food chain with 28 branches.
• Reformatting a part of the Dietetics Manual for the East Vancouver Dialysis Clinic and standardizing a part of the volunteer recruitment manual for the Food Hub at South Vancouver Neighbourhood House.

I am looking forward to being a part of the writing team of 301 Technical Writing class. If you need to contact me, my email is lholdo00@student.ubc.ca

XX Garden Grove Drive,

Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5G4A7

September 20,2021

301 Technical Writing Class,

Vancouver Campus

2329 West Mall

Vancouver, BC Canada V6T 1Z4

Dear Technical Writing 301/Sept 2021 Class,

Please consider my application for a professional writing team member, as advertised at the English 301 99A Technical Writing September 2021 at blogs.ubc.ca. I am currently in the third year of my second undergraduate degree in Food, Nutrition and Health at the University of British Columbia. I also have a degree in Business Management from Manila and a diploma in Restaurant Management and Commercial Cookery from Adelaide, Australia. Our technical writing professor in the Department of English at UBC, Dr. Erika Paterson, encouraged me to apply.

I have eight years of experience writing business-related documents such as kitchen and business operations manuals, client contracts, professional emails, and company websites. In Canada, I designed a website for a small catering company specializing in Scandinavian cuisine that I purchased, resulting in a 300% increase in sales. Making a business operations manual for a small street food company in Manila that expanded into a fast-food chain with 28 branches is one of the highlights of my business career. My recent volunteer projects are reformatting a part of the Dietetics Manual for the East Vancouver Dialysis Clinic and standardizing a part of the volunteer recruitment manual for the Food Hub at South Vancouver Neighbourhood House. Collaborating with clients and requesting feedback to achieve the clients’ goals are a few of my strengths. I will be an asset to a writing team that makes time for careful editing, revision, and collaboration. I have more writing experience in Manila than in Canada, and I need time to carefully check with the writing team about the tone and grammar of my documents. 

I love learning and enjoy working on different projects with people from various fields and cultural backgrounds. I treat my workmates with respect by actively listening and finishing projects promptly. If my profile meets your needs, please send me an email at lholdo00@student.ubc.ca.

Sincerely,

Lea Ang Salamanca

 

Here is the attached word file of my application letter:

301 Lea Ang Salamanca Application Letter

Welcome to Technical Writing. This blog will feature my class activities.