This module consists of two independent parts. One is to create a LinkedIn profile where we were not only asked to create our own digital resume, but also to review each other’s work. Finally, we did some secondary research online and summarized the best practice for professional networking on LinkedIn. Second part is related to the formal report as we started with proposing on the topic we chose to work on. After some preliminary research, we wrote a progress report that contains a rough timeline of how we plan to proceed with our research.

About preparing my LinkedIn profile

For this assignment, I created my first online resume with LinkedIn, a famous platform for building personal brand in job market. Having heard of it for quite a long time, I hadn’t taken actions to transit my resume onto it before this assignment. As a computer science student, I thought that potential recruiters would be more interested in my technical related work on github (which is a version control tool for developers to collaborate on software projects). However after spending some time browsing through LinkedIn, I noticed that many people of my major including my classmates have been active users of it. On reflection, I realized that even for those technical focused positions, recruiters would like their candidates to be well rounded persons. Sometimes, they pay equal attention to soft skills like teamwork and effective communication, especially for entry level positions. LinkedIn not only provides a nice user interface for resume creation; it also suggests on layout of your page with different sections for volunteer experience, language skills etc. All these online supports make one’s resume look professional at first sight and easy to maintain, not to mention that one can filter and set up connections with people of similar background which will be easily achieved with a paper resume.

About LinkedIn peer review

Overall I believe it’s a rewarding process. I got a chance to know more about my teammates and many others in this course beyond their blog biographies. While reviewing other’s work and searching online for LinkedIn best practices, I actually learned new ways of thinking or explored new features for myself. For instance, I learned from an online forum that users can also embed media like slides or video into the body of their experience and that inappropriate endorsement can be removed. By recommending these tips to each other, we all maximize the benefits we can gain from LinkedIn.

About preparing the proposal

Personally I don’t have much experience writing formal reports so this could a learning opportunity for me. Unlike other writing assignment where the scopes of problem to be researched are listed in the instructions, we were given the liberty to choose a topic that interests us and that we can recommend actions on the problem. The process of identifying such a problem certainly challenged me as my interactions with local communities and organizations are mostly limited in campus. Accordingly, I chose a language learning program aims at helping international students adapt to English speaking environment, one of the challenges I have been facing ever since. Considering a draft report needs to be completed in a relatively short time frame, one concern I have is whether I would be able to collect enough samples of data for analysis. The required length of this report may sound usual for many, but it’s actually the longest writing assignment I am going to have. As a slow writer, I will need to plan early and pay attention to the layout and organization of the report. Samples from the textbook may serve as a good reference.

Peer Review for report proposal

My partner kindly left many positive comments about my proposal. Meanwhile she pointed out that it would be better to explain what AES stands for. Indeed, this is a usual mistake while addressing something familiar to myself, I forgot to provide its full name at the beginning even if readers may guess its meaning by the end. The other thing she noticed is I mentioned “lack of feedback” as one of the key points in the statement of problem, but did not elaborate on it. She suggested having “an explanation of the type of feedback system”. Since it’s already beyond stating a problem, I decided to start a new paragraph in the proposed solution section to add more thoughts about the type of feedback.

formal report proposal-Xiaoying Cai – revised

Emily’s review for my proposal

My review for Emily’s proposal

There were times in the past when I needed to address some relatively complex terms to non-technical audience. Even in our major study, we are often required to explain programming languages to each other as testimony to fully understanding of the concepts. I was naturally attracted to the task. It didn’t take me long to choose polymorphism as my target term. Because I  recalled my confusion when first introduced to it as an essential component of Object Oriented Programming. Even with the reoccurring and detailed explanation of the concept, my state of confusion lasted quite long until I gained some hands-on experience implementing it in some projects. So I wonder how to facilitate the process for beginner students or general audience without much background knowledge.

It turned out not to be an easy task. Polymorphism is common sense for many in this major, but definitely looks complex at first sight. One of the concerns were that this term is built up on some other basic concepts related to programming. It will no doubt be confusing if I mentioned those as well in the definition. However, skipping them can break the consistency in explaining the target term. So I decided to briefly mention two of the prerequisite terms in support of the main definitions. In addition, I made use of metaphor and visual representations to help build a high level understanding of the concept, with an intention that in the end, readers gain some intuition and feel curious to further explore more on their own.

The peer review process shows me how my way of clarifying ideas looks in the other person’s eyes. I also got the chance to learn a few new concepts from other disciplines thanks to our shared blog posts. Overall, it was an rewarding experience. The reviewer pointed out some of my grammatical mistakes that I probably had overlooked for long. Those problems may keep slipping away and dwell in my future writings, had they not been caught this time.

In explaining the term, I have tried my best to avoid introducing extra technical concepts, however, they are unavoidably to be mentioned in the Parenthetical and Sentence definition section for the completeness and accuracy purpose. I believe that’s why we need the Expanded section for further developing our definitions. As suggested, I will adjust the position of visual representation, and replace or remove “application of the term in other disciplines” part. The original intention of having them was to create a sense of analogy to other contexts. But it actually can add confusion to readers who do not have chemistry or biology background.

The reviewer also suggested using contrast in the expanded definition of two types of polymorphism. However, the term itself usually will not be confused with others; also, there is no such transitions between the static and dynamic forms of the term in applying them as far as I know. So I will keep the examples relatively separate as they are now.

Link to Daryn Mulholland’s review of my work

Link to my review to Daryn Mulholland’s work

Revised three definitions:

formal definition-revised-Linda Cai

Dear Kumar,

I have reviewed your application letter and would like to form a writing team with you for the ENGL 301 class. Our complementary skill sets and common goals to be perfect at writing ensure a mutually beneficial cooperation as a team.

I am interested in your multi-disciplinary academic background which results in a diverse writing experience in research-based topics. Even if you said your writings are limited to certain internship experience, I believe the skills are easily transferable to other field given enough background information.

As a computer science student, my writing experiences are largely technology-related where I created documentations to facilitate inter-departments’ understanding of software’s source code. How I resolve a big project is more or less affected by my way of coding a program. I tend to break things down into small tasks, and start on the part I feel most confident with while ignore the order or details for the time being. Things will get clear themselves once I figure out the structure of a domain. I hope the idea could help with your concerns when you are not sure where to begin an assignment.

Please refer to the attachment below for my application letter. If you also feel interested in working with me, feel free to contact at linda_cai2014@hotmail.com or through our group Facebook page.

Sincerely,

Xiaoying(Linda) Cai

301 Xiaoying Cai Application letter

To: Dr. Erika Paterson
From: Xiaoying (Linda) Cai
Date: January 23, 2017
Subject: Blog Posting of Application Letter for ENGL 301

I am writing to inform you that I have posted my application letter to our writing teams in my blog. You will be able to find a digital copy of it from the attachment below. A summary of my application is as follows:

• My academic interest and why I chose a computer science major
• My strengths and related past experiences in writing
• My weakness in writing and my learning philosophy to deal with it

Please feel free to let me know if you have questions or any additional information is required. Thank you for reviewing my application.

Sincerely,

Linda Cai

301 Xiaoying Cai Application letter

5607 Yalta Place, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1L7

January 21^st, 2017

English 301 Technical Writing Class
University of British Columbia
2329 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4

Dear English 301 classmates,

I am writing to express my interest to be part of your writing team. I am a third year student in the bachelor of computer science program. An internship experience during my first degree’s study inspired me to consider my interest and potentials in the computer science field. While most of my classmates went on to be lawyer or to seek a position in the government as that’s typical when you are from a law school, I followed my intuition here.

From my own experience as a second language learner, my strengths build up on the awareness of writing being the part that takes most efforts to get improved. To achieve my goals, I once participated in the weekly free writing class provided by the UBC’s continuing studies where I learned the idea of free writing. It’s a great way to warm up before one starts the formal writing tasks. I have also reached out to the writing center and had someone to review my works. During my last internship with the Genome Sciences Center, I was involved in the complete process of creating a web application, from writing the project and design plans to the documentation of technical specifications, in which I paid particular attention regarding how to effectively explain concepts to non-technical users. I can see my writing skills being improved through these activities.

But there is still a long way to go. A lack of more advanced vocabulary is one thing that may lead to being incapable of accurate description of certain scenarios. There also has been many a time that I understood every word in an expression but still didn’t know the meaning of it as a whole. In addition, discrepancy exists between recognition of some expressions and my ability to apply them properly in writing. Understanding my weakness is the first step to become a mature writer. The learning philosophy I have been pursuing is to start small but contributes persistently every day, and believe in the qualitative changes will eventually happen.

Thank you for taking the time to read my application. I can be reached at linda_cai2014@hotmail.com, or through the group Facebook page.

Sincerely,

Xiaoying (Linda) Cai

301 Xiaoying Cai Application letter

Testing