LEO'S WEB FOLIO

After reviewing all the assignments by the end of the term, I would say it was a really structured and intensive course. We have to do two assignments every week and read a lot of chapters to cover our assignment materials. At the first time when I registered for this course, I expected a much lighter workload, but it was more intensive than I thought. But from those intensity, I could get a lot of subjects I will use in my future career. 

Strength: Completing this course, I found my past experiences and career at the public bank are helpful. Since I did my first degree on Media Information, I learnt how to simplify and make easy readable writing. This applies universally, and I always believe writing should be simple. Also my career at the public bank with a bunch of paper works is a good reference to skimming. Figuring out the main point of the writing and assignment are important and I was able to deal with this problem with background experiences from my past career. With respect to the learning process, I believe my strength is accepting advice. This was helpful a lot when I fix and revise my writing.

Weakness: Even though I was able to revise my writing from peer reviewing from my teammates, my own English understanding is still imperfect. I enjoyed most of the assignments and thought mine was well written, but I got deducted pretty often from grammar or typos. Most of the time, I double checked my work but still I missed some points of grammatical errors. Another weakness of mine is connected to the first one. Since those errors continuously occurred, I was losing my confidence in writing. From the formal report assignment, my writing confidence level was the lowest because my subject was rejected three times. Despite of this weaknesses, I was able to learn technical thinking of writing and skills from those mistakes as well. So I believe my weaknesses can be changed to strengths in the future career.

Overall, I get more comfortable with several types of technical and professional writing, which I have to learn for my future career. I really enjoyed this course!

The last task making this Web Folio is a true reflection assignment. I can learn more details from the posting and revising my best works, also from writing this reflection too. It has been wonderful work to display all of my works in one website.

My best part of Web Folio creation was Best Work section where all my assignments are uploaded. Throughout this work, I could learn not only what my weaknesses and strengths are, but also how to compose the folio site. Also revising my weaknesses, I can rewind comments from my teammates which are helpful for my other courses. These additional comments allow for the clarification of weak points, unfamiliar writing skills, and grammar mistakes. English is my second language, so I have got a huge opportunity to rethink and rewrite my papers through these exercises.

The hardest part of Web Folio was resetting my blog again. Since I am not familiar with the UBC blog system yet, recomposing sections and posts was confusing. Especially making subsections and inserting pictures made me confused, but finally I got the correct way to do it. 

Overall, I have enjoyed laying out this Web Folio. I hope to make progress with this blog to get my future job position.

YOU attitude

The first part of this unit was learning about YOU-Attitude. From this advising letter, I could get some idea how to write a letter in a formal way. The given example was a little bit exaggerated, but still had a possible mistake if English is not my mother tongue. Through revising Evan’s email, I got a chance to think about my writing habits. Also the two letters gave me a lot of confidence to get through the problem I will face in Canada. I chose the topic that is really suffering at that time and practising was helpful to solve my problem.  

Formal Report Draft

This unit was the most unique part of this course. Since I graduated from my previous university around six years ago, I almost forgot how to write the research report. Most of my research for this report was done when I was preparing for the proposal, so I thought I had enough time to do the rest of the things. But from the start writing, I realised what I was missing. So I had to reorganise and edit my outline and figures I would like to use. I should have prepared earlier than I expected. Collecting data was the most interesting part to me, especially counting rubbish bins on the roads were fun. I counted the number of bins on the roads by myself, and almost walked 15km in total. From the research, I could learn the writing skill itself, but moreover, I realised my topic is a real problem of UBC. I think this is a big study over writing.

 Peer Review

As always, peer review is the most enjoyable part. This time I took Ben’s writing which has the topic as “UBC Financial Literacy”. As a former banker, the topic was impressive, since most of South Korea universities also have a problem of  financial education lack. While reading his report, I found he did good work on survey and research backup information. Also he presented well interpreted data from the survey. Ben suggested some good points I have to revise. My writing composition was not reader-friendly and that was my confusing part as well. This is the positive point of peer review. Furthermore, I learnt that primary and secondary resources have a synergy when they support each other’s arguments, it makes my opinion more convincing. 

Overall, Unit Three was a fun and enjoyable unit to improve and retrieve my writing knowledge for the report. 

MEMORANDUM: Formal Report First Draft

LinkedIn Research

This was a good opportunity to push myself to revise and update my LinkedIn profile. I was hesitating to use and update LinkedIn since that was not familiar to me, so my profile was out of date. But after the research, I feel more confident and comfortable using LinkedIn and get an insight to make my profile more attractive. 

Report Proposal and Outline

Over the last two weeks, I revised my proposal paper 3 times. Since I have never written a formal report before, approaching and choosing the topic was the hardest part for me. I chose my first topic from my bank experience, but that was too hard to research in a limited time. My second poic was also not good for this formal report, so I chose my last topic. This whole choosing and revising process made me get more confidence to write my final report. Also outline is helpful to build my idea concrete. From the outline, I could get hints about how my report will be composed. Lastly, making a survey was the most interesting part to me. As a former media major student, thinking about how to make the questions effective and unbiased was fun. Hopefully, my survey and research is going to go smoothly.

Peer Review

This part is the most helpful part to me as a non English native student. My teammates always gave me detailed advice and help to improve my writing. In this unit they helped me a lot by choosing the topic of my report. To give them back, I did as much detail as possible on reviewing. I have a weakness in English itself, but I can give them the idea of other points. Also our group changes the reviewing mates every time, this would be helpful to get different ideas from all other teammates. 

Overall, unit 2 was tough for me. But at the same time, the whole process was interesting and beneficial. I could find what my weaknesses are and develop those points through this unit. Furthermore, I recognised that a good proposal is the fundamental for a good final report. I am sure that unit 2 was a nice chance to develop my writing skills. 

Repost: Research Proposal for Formal Report

Peer Review of Leo’s Research Proposal for Formal Report

First Draft of Three Definitions

For the last two weeks, we have done three steps of our first writing assignment including three types of definitions, peer reviewing, and revising. In the first writing stage, I needed to introduce a definition of a physics term to non-background audiences. I found this work was challenging since firstly, English is not my first language, secondly, the definition includes a lot of terms specifically used in physics and mathematics. From this point, I learnt how to reduce and minimise using science terms and change to familiar words. I also got an idea how 3 types of definitions are used in a different way. Especially in the expanded definition, I realised that the most efficient way to easily explain is visual. Using visuals led the formula to clarification of definition. Through the first work, I was able to learn not only how to make a different definition for technical terms, but also to improve my own writing skill. 

Peer Review Step

In this writing step, I had a chance to review my team mate’s (Kelly Kim) writing and got a detailed advice paper on my writing from her. This stage was a good opportunity to improve my writing skill. Firstly, I can get my team mate’s writing skills from reading and reviewing her assignment. She is good at writing and composing the continents, so I could get references for my own revising. Also she is almost native speaker of English, so I learnt a lot of vocabulary from her writing which is useful for academic writing. After getting back her review paper on mine, I felt how she concentrated on reviewing my assignment. She pointed out some expression errors and gave composing suggestions with examples. Overall, my peer reviewing was so satisfying and helpful for my writing improvement. 

Revision Step

After getting a peer review paper, I could understand which points of my writing were wrong or ambiguous. My writing’s main goal was introducing a technical term to non-technical readers, so I moved on to change some specific vocabularies. Luckily, I have great team members and reviewers, I was able to improve my writing weaknesses that could be missed. Usually, reviewing my assignment by myself is not useful since I could not find my mistakes. But this time, I finished and minimised my faults with support from thankful help. Overall, through the first unit and assignment, I got a bunch of insights for my writing improvement that I would not be able to get otherwise. I strongly get the confidence to do my further assignments in this course, with my wonderful team mates. 

Revised Definition of “Kepler’s Laws of Planetary”

Peer Review for Kelly’s “Three Definitions: Power Distance”

INVITATION EMAIL1

To: Kelly Kim

From : Leo Kim

Date: January 23, 2022

Subject: ENGL 301 Writing Team Invitation

Dear Kelly,

I hope you start this week well and get this email in a comfortable time. I would like to invite you to our writing team for the ENGL 301 course.

While reading your application and biography, I found we are in the same Computer Science programme in the University of British Columbia. In addition, we both have bank working experience as well. Your data analysing and writing skills will be helpful for our team. So it would be glad if you accept this invitation and join our team! As we share some similar experiences, I believe we can make the synergy benefit for each other in this course.

I have attached my application letter to this email, reviewing my application letter would be helpful to you making a decision. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this suggestion, just let me know.

I’m looking forward to seeing you as my team member! If you intend on accepting this invitation, please email me at leoleoloel@student.ubc.ca.

Best,

Leo Kim

ENGL 301 Student

Enclosure: 301 Leo KIm Application Letter

RESPONSE EMAIL 1

To: Jake Moh

From: Leo Kim

Date: January 23, 2022

Subject: Re: ENGL 301 Writing Team Invitation

Dear Jake,

I am pleased to accept your suggestion to your writing team! Thank you for this opportunity. 

After reading your attached application, I found that we have similarities! I do also believe in the power of computers and it can improve our society in a positive way. Also I’m interested in  companies you have experienced, so I can hear you more advice. In the meantime, my background experiences are also helpful for your course journey as well.

I’m really looking forward to working with you.

Cheers,

Leo Kim

RESPONSE EMAIL 2

To: Ben Maxfield

From: Leo Kim

Date: January 23, 2022

Subject: Re: ENGL 301 Writing Team Invitation

Dear Ben,

I am pleased to accept your suggestion to your writing team! Thank you for this opportunity. 

After reading your attached application, I found that we have similarities! I also want to make our writing team more communicable and team-oriented. Moreover, I’m interested in financial analysis as well. My past bank working experiences are also helpful for you and your course journey as well.

I’m really looking forward to working with you.

Cheers,

Leo Kim

To: Dr. Erika Paterson, Instructor of ENGL 301 Course

From: Leo Kim, Student of ENGL 301 Course

Date: January 20, 2022

Subject: Submission of Application Letter

Kindly inform you I have posted and attached my Application Letter on my blog under the “BLOG” page, categorised by “Blog”. 

The attached document includes:

• Interest as the teammates of the course to make a professional writing team
• Academic and working backgrounds for English course work and communicative skills
• Strength for the position for this writing team
• Weakness for the position for this writing team
• Examples for my strength and weakness for this writing team
• Contact information

Please let me know if you have any additional information. Thank you.

Enclosure: A Letter of Application

301 Leo KIm Application Letter

3341 University Road

Vancouver, BC 12345

January 19, 2021

Elon Musk, Team Manager

Technical Writing 301

6751 Tesla Street

Toronto, ON 54321

Subject: Professional Writing Team Member with Your Course

Dear Mr. Musk:

Are you looking for a sincere, hard-studying, calm, and good-concentrated colleague who is willing to work together throughout this Technical Writing course this term? If so, please consider my application. As a Second Degree student in Computer Science at the University of British Columbia and former Business Loan Specialist at the Bank of Korea, I believe my experiences in constructive writing, decision making, and analysing experiences make me an outstanding fit for your course work. Moreover, I got 2 honour terms in my previous degree with a Media Information and English Literature and Language major in South Korea,  which means my academic achievement as a team worker for studying has been verified.

Through my first university, I took classes conducted in English. It made me use English for most of the lecture components, including presentations, writings, and discussions. Furthermore, as a loaning specialist, I wrote credit reports for each company after finishing the credit appraisal under professionalism and trustworthiness. In addition, I was working for private business owners in the period of the first COVID19 attack in South Korea in early 2020. I dealt with over 300 companies and finished most of their rapid loans on due date with multitasking skill and my colleagues help, since I believe trust is the top value for the customer and colleagues.

This is my first time studying in an English speaking country, I may need more time and practice. I will develop my weaknesses through this course. Also I am always open to advice and comments to develop them. 

If you think I could contribute to your team, do not  hesitate to contact me, I would be happy being your teammate for this term.

Sincerely,

Leo Kim

301 Leo KIm Application Letter