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Self-assessment of skills and strengths

Working through the activities in this class made me realize the skills I developed through working and studying.

Dependability was a valuable skill that I learned as a child, and having this skill is a career or a business advantage. The culinary business field is a harsh and competitive industry. My parent’s food business never closed, and their company’s brand got recognized by literally weathering typhoons. When all other food businesses were closed due to holidays and harsh weather, my parent’s store was the only one open to serve essential workers’ food. Getting all the required activities submitted on time is a challenge in this course. However, as I work late nights trying to finish the work requirements on time, I remind myself that I am working in a warm house without flying debris, unlike my other workplace. 

Another useful skill that I developed through working and studying was code-switching. Learning the basics of speaking and writing in English at school while working at a street food stall gives one the ability to interact with people from different economic statuses. Our family, employees and customers were from the working-class background, while the mall administrators where their food branches are located communicate in English. Since my mom doesn’t write English very well, my dad and I were the ones who wrote English business documents. The ability to code-switch tremendously helped me when I moved to Canada, as I had developed the ability to get along with different people. Taking this course expanded my code-switching ability because it teaches how to communicate with people in higher education. Canadians are open to diverse cultures, but Canadians still prefer to hire and work with people with similar backgrounds. Learning how educated Canadians prefer to communicate is an advantage and will expand the range of people I can work for or become my future customers. Using my code-switching skills, I can even create different brands for different market segments.  

Another valuable skill that I developed is perseverance. Editing and re-editing are required in this course, and I feel that I have done this task all my life. Growing up in a competitive business environment, our family had to constantly assess our business and make quick adjustments to make our stores competitive. We learn by doing the necessary action and measuring and correcting our actions daily. The way writing is taught in this course was the opposite of how I learned how to write English. I had to relearn how to write English, which takes a long time. Fortunately, I like learning and challenges.

Organization and standardization are two skills that I learned from studying. These two skills are difficult to learn working on the street in the developing world. As a Filipino, we tend to look at the whole picture, and we don’t have words that directly translate to standardization and organization. Organizing and standardizing my parent’s business procedures allowed their business to multiply into several branches. My mom’s second food stall was a franchise, and its procedures were based on American fast-food chains. Since we knew how to read English, we could copy the system and apply it to the street food store, allowing the business to expand into several branches. The technical communications book works similarly. It broke down the parts of technical writing into a series of components and steps while providing the students with examples that make the document easy to follow.

The original topic for this blog is about how your skills and strengths as a student support your future career. However, as I thought about this topic, I never really was just a student. Working in my parent’s store allowed me to gain valuable experiences that a person rarely gets when one solely studies at school. Working taught me dependability and perseverance while studying teaches organization and standardization. In learning how to code-switch, having exposure to two different worlds is vital in learning this skill. I am grateful that I had the opportunity to be in an environment that allowed me to develop all these skills.

Application of my skills and strengths in the dietetics field

Based on my background, I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to stop, rethink my career, choose another line of expertise and do another degree. I am applying as a dietitian because I have observed the rapid changes in the food industry, which affect the population’s health. Even though my family was struggling financially when I was young, we had access to nutritious food, which allowed us to grow, work and study well. I have seen how the culinary world shifted from fresh tamarind and coconut to instant flavoured powders and how poor people changed their diets from fish to instant noodles. I also notice how my hardworking peers struggle with health challenges due to inaccessibility to nutrition information and nutritious food. In the dialysis clinic that I volunteer for, ninety percent of the patients are first-generation immigrants. First-generation immigrants encounter various barriers that prevent them from living healthy lives, such as language, income, education, culture, racism, and access to health services. As a dietitian, I plan to use my code-switching skills to reach first-generation immigrants and marginalized Canadian populations by developing nutrition programs that match each demographic’s culture using the appropriate language. As a former Vancouver caterer, I can organize multiethnic teams that serve people from different cultural backgrounds. I intend to use my code-switching and organization skills in the dietetics field to reach as many disadvantaged cultural groups in the community.

Creating a Web folio is empowering. I have thought of creating a blog site before, but as a previous business owner, I know I should start making a blog only after finding the blog’s purpose, identifying my target audience and when I am ready to commit to consistently monitoring and updating the blog. This course exceeded my expectations because the course also teaches the modern way of communicating in the workplace and provides practical writing exercises that helped me improve my technical writing skills. 

I was also fascinated with the number of marketing templates and photos which are now readily purchased for less than $100.00 that I used to hire professionals for, such as website designers and graphic designers. Marketing materials have become ubiquitous and inexpensive. However, I find that modern employees or business people are now expected to be knowledgeable about business and marketing aside from being good at their chosen professions. Enrolling in this course provides students with resources that can enhance one’s career or business, such as learning how to use WordPress and LinkedIn. I am currently designing online cooking classes for an elementary school, and creating a WordPress site will be helpful as a recipe storage site that will complement the cooking classes.

My basic English knowledge was a weakness that is strengthened by taking this course. Having the book and document writing examples is handy in making the activities, and I will use the resources as a reference as I move forward at school or work. Another weakness is my attention deficit disorder. For example, I would figure out how to create pages and posts, but after five minutes, I would forget the steps. Forgetting how to use WordPress is irritating; however, as I was doing the Web Folio, I just made a flowchart and documented the steps to avoid forgetting them. I will keep those self-made instructions as a reference when I start doing a WordPress site for my volunteer work. 

Curiosity and eagerness to learn are my strengths in this class. I have a heavy course load this semester, and I wished that I had more time to explore Word Press, LinkedIn, and Qualtrics. However, I think that the purpose of taking this course is to help us move forward in our careers, and I will take advantage of learning how to use these applications after this course. 

Welcome to my ENG 301 Reflections Blog page. 

Participating in these activities and writing these reflections made me realize relevant skills and strengths that I possess, which are helpful in technical writing. Learning time organization and developing basic marketing skills through my previous jobs helps me complete technical writing assignments promptly. Also, these course exercises enhanced the code-switching skills that will help me navigate and communicate in different environments. I struggled to understand how to communicate effectively in the academic world. This course provides valuable communications tools that help me stay relevant in the modern workplace.

Unit One – Writing Definitions

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/

Unit Two – Contemporary Business Letters and Social Media Writing

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/

Unit Three – Creating Formal Reports

Researching, organizing and writing a formal report are the main tasks for unit three. 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.