Luke's Engl Blog

For this reflection blog, I will be discussing about the formal report writing process. First of all, writing the report was definitely a challenging task because I have not written many of such reports before. Also, having to constantly research and write along with a full-time job was not easy as well. The biggest challenge in composing the report was in the beginning of the entire process, which was in composing a questionnaire for others to answer. Because my topic was such a broad topic, it was hard to come up with the right questions to funnel the focus. Once I finished making the questionnaire, getting back the responses from people was another challenge as a lot of the people that I have contacted were not responsive due to the nature of their job, having to be on 12-hour rotational shifts. Out of the 6 people that I have interviewed, I was able to get 2 responses and these individuals are police officers and ones working in healthcare and law enforcement fields. It was frustrating to find out that I did not have enough responses, however, the ones who replied to me supplied with very informative answers, therefore, it was sufficient for me to use as primary data for the report. As a secondary data, I used information on the web and searching through the internet was one of the most fun parts of the assignment since I could learn a lot of the things that I did not know about regarding my own topic.

As for the task of reviewing my peer’s work, I found it very enjoyable because it was an interesting read and provided me with learning opportunity about issues of other parts of the planet. Whenever I encounter new interesting information, I experience the ‘enlightenment’ to my own unknown realm. By reviewing my peer’s work, I was able to also discover other people’s writing style and technique which I thought was suitable for me to try implementing for my future writing assignments. Whenever there were errors, I could point out the error and offered an opportunity for a fix for my peer. Just like how I had done, my peer would definitely be doing the same which would provide me with new thoughts and eventually make me a better writer. Utilizing the information that I received from my peer, I am going to be ready for sure to write the final draft of the report.

Both the task of composing and the peer reviewing inspired me to learn new things and I, for sure, did learn a lot about things that I did not know about.

FormalReport_LJANG

Creating a Linkedin profile was not something that was new to me since I always had it since a long time ago. However, my profile used to be very basic without much detail added to each column. Using ENGL 301 98A as an opportunity, I upgraded my Linkedin profile from a basic one to an advanced profile with a lot of details. Since I was already familiar with social media network, creating Linkedin was not an issue for me.

Preparing my report proposal and brainstorming was difficult for me as it required a lot of thinking and planning for choosing the right topic. Choosing a topic was even more difficult than brainstorming itself because it needed to be a topic that I could brainstorm easily as well as discuss with proficiency. I am currently trying to reach out to the right people to ask questions to collect data, however, I have not got any answers yet regarding the matter. Therefore, I am currently on a standby. Hopefully, I will get answers soon. I currently do not have any questions regarding how my research and progress will come out to be a Formal Report in the end.

Aside from reading my partner’s proposal, I also read other group members’ proposals and I learned a lot of things on different topics. I was impressed and intrigued on how other people think about different matters in a way that I have never thought in before. Also, I learned about my weaknesses in my writing and ideas from reading my peer’s review. Sometimes, it is easy to think that oneself’s work is good enough, however, reflection from others always give me an opportunity to reflect on my own work and be inspired to do better.

Overall, unit 2 was definitely more challenging than unit 1. Hopefully I would be able to do well for the rest of the Formal Report and create a nice end-work. I am not sure what is to come for unit 3 but I will keep working away and do my best.

Link for the peer review I received:
https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-98a-2020sa/2020/06/24/peer-review-for-luke-jangs-research-proposal-2/

Research Proposal Report_Revised

To be honest, I was not too sure on what exactly we would learn from this Technical Writing course since I only had some general idea on what the course was about. However, by doing the assignments that were given for Unit One, I was able to quickly grasp the concept of the course material.

For the peer reflection, I reviewed Hangwei Bao’s assignment and it was interesting to know a new word that I have never seen or heard before. The term that Hangwei discussed was the word A/B Testing which is frequently used in commerce environment. I definitely enjoyed reading and learning about the new terminology. As much as I appreciated Hangwei’s effort in developing the definition, I, for sure, thought it could be better by following the instruction provided by the instructor. Categorizing the definitions could have definitely help readers figure out which definitions belong to which definition category. However, Hangwei did a fair job in explaining what A/B Testing is.

When I was developing my definition, I tried reflecting back to my practical experience when I was working at a sawmill. When I first worked at the sawmill, I did not really know what the kiln dryer was. It was just a big metal rectangular box where lumber sat in. I tried writing the definition for the past ‘me’ when I did not know anything about the kiln dryer. For the expanded definition, I did use various expansion strategies like the operating principles and the analysis of parts to describe the fundamentals of the technology of the machine to facilitate the understanding for the readers who are not mechanically inclined at all. I also included a visual schematic diagram of a kiln dryer so that the readers can visualize what the machine is after obtaining the knowledge from my written definition.

For the self-editing part of the assignment, I carefully read what Hangwei suggested to fix. Upon reading the suggestions, I read the parts of my assignment where Hangwei pointed out. I did notice that it could have been confusing for readers so I fixed those issues. According to what my peer suggested, there was not much of a fix was required, but I still looked over my assignment again from top to bottom and made sure it was free of any other errors.

Regarding the assignment, I liked the part where the students could partner up and collaborate in fixing each other’s work. This enabled me to evaluate my own work from someone else’s point of view and it gave me a chance of share thoughts on other people’s work as well.

Hi Siddhartha,

My name is Luke Jang, your classmate in ENGL 301 98A. I read through your application letter on your blog and it instantly drew me into working with you for the term. Therefore, I am writing this letter to you to invite you to join my professional writing team. Your skills in developing User Manuals and your diverse background in living at different places in the past were very interesting for me.

Prior to my education at UBC, I obtained a diploma in Aircraft Maintenance. When performing maintenance on aircrafts, reading, understanding and following user manuals for a proper fix are very important, so I always had an ample gratitude towards manual developers. Aside from being grateful to manual developers, I am proficient in following instructions from a written document, so we would have a good chemistry in working together. Personally, I have never met or worked with a manual developer before, so it would be awesome if you could work with me.

As for your multicultural background, I personally think that people with broader experience in different culture settings could be more open-minded and accepting to various opinions, therefore, there might be a better chance of a better click to each other’s thoughts. As a person who is very interested in Indian and Chinese culture, we might be able to open up fun conversations with each other as well.

Please see the attached application letter of mine and see if we could work together. I really hope that we can be teammates for the term.

Thank you !

Luke Jang

Hi Zhe,

My name is Luke Jang, your classmate in ENGL 301 98A. I read through your application letter on your blog and it instantly drew me into working with you for the term. Therefore, I am writing this letter to you to invite you to join my professional writing team. The fact that you are an athlete who can perform in a team environment and that you worked in a hospital, which is a current workplace for me, interested me so that I wish to work with you through this summer.

First of all, I hope you are safe and well in China. I am always on the lookout for COVID-related news from China and other countries so I think our conversation can be started easily whenever we need to communicate to each other regarding our projects in this course.

Regarding your athletic achievements, I was very, very impressed on how great of an athlete you are. As an individual who go to the gym for a hobby, your performance is exceptional. I do know for a fact that athletes do possess the teamwork spirit which I always appreciate and am grateful for. I am also a team-oriented person, so I think we will work well together.

Please see the attached application letter of mine and see if we could work together. I really hope that we can be teammates for the term.

Thank you !

Luke Jang

Hi Eva,

My name is Luke Jang, your classmate in ENGL 301 98A. I read through your application letter on your blog and it instantly drew me into working with you for the term. Therefore, I am writing this letter to you to invite you to join my professional writing team. As an individual who is always interested in working with and helping people in need, I was interested to see that you are working for autistic children. I am currently a volunteer at a senior home as well as a Community Policing Centre, serving the elderly and the general public in the community. I thought our common background in helping others would let us have a good chemistry in working on our projects for this course.

When I read through your application letter, another thing that made me want to work with you was your strength in meeting deadlines. As an individual who considers punctuality very important, I always want to work with people who are on time and perform task on time since it is crucial in smoothing out the teamwork.

As for your weakness in not being able to communicate well over the online platform during the COVID crisis, I can contribute in helping out the team for a better communication as I am skilled in communicating fast and effective through media.

Please see the attached application letter of mine and see if we could work together. I really hope that we can be teammates for the term.

Thank you !

Luke Jang

MEMORANDUM

To: Dr. Erika Paterson
From: Luke Jang Luke.J93@hotmail.com
Date: 18 May 2020
Subject: Successful posting of the Letter of application

As required, the Letter of application was successfully posted on my Blog. Attached to this memo, please find a brief report on the content of the application letter for the purpose of looking for team members for the term’s writing team.

The posted letter includes:
• Luke Jang’s professional interest
• Luke Jang’s basic background
• Luke Jang’s relevant skills in writing (strengths & weaknesses)
• Luke Jang’s learning philosophy

Please do not hesitate to contact me for any questions.

Best regards,

Luke

File attached: 301 LukeJang Application letter

Luke Jang
Luke.J93@hotmail.com

May 17, 2020
Peers for ENGL 301 class at University of British Columbia

Dear my peers:

As a student for ENGL 301 at UBC, I am preparing a letter (May 22 deadline) to find a professional writing team for the 2020 Summer term.

First of all, I am a student majoring in Wood Products Processing in the Faculty of Forestry at UBC.
I have finished my 4th year at UBC already, however, I still have a couple of courses that I need to finish as the last credits, so I am still in school. ENGL 301 is my final elective course that I will be taking at UBC.

Aside from taking a few courses to finish my degree, I am currently working as a Healthcare Security Officer at Vancouver General Hospital where I deal with mental patients on a daily basis. At my job, I write incident reports everyday for the incidents that occur during my shifts. Therefore, I am skillful in writing factual reports. The reason why I am working as a Security Officer and have chosen this course as my final elective is because I am currently preparing myself to become a police officer in the future. Documentation and writing reports are one of the most crucial skills that the police officers need to possess so I am trying to improve my writing skills by taking this course.

In the past, I have taken courses that are heavily focused on writing such as English 110 and NEST 101. As you can tell from the name, English 110 was a literature course, however, NEST 101 was a history class which focused on Egyptian history. Since I have taken such courses which were writing-heavy, I am confident that I can write proficient papers with great content. However, I do not have much experience in writing for the business sector, so I will definitely be lacking in this field.

In my opinion, learning is a process of making information into my own. However, if learning can be done in a cooperative environment by sharing knowledge and opinion, I believe that the learning can definitely open one’s perspective and thoughts in a positive way. I am always open to sharing learning with others.

If I can be one of your team members, I know that I will be professional and proficient in working with you throughout the term. Please let me know if you are intrigued by my introduction.

Thank you for reading.

Best regards,

Luke Jang