Unit 3 Reflection Blog

Unit three introduces the technique of writing with you attitude, the format of writing complaint and adjustment letters, as well as the process of completing a draft research report. Implementing “you attitude” is crucial in every aspect of the report, including the analysis and explanation of the research results, the organization of the report, as well as the design of the illustrations.

  • Process of collecting and analyzing primary research results

When analyzing the collected primary data, I find the process both interesting and challenging. As a science student, this is my first time having to collect data through surveys rather than laboratory experiments. However, the results are just as exciting! It is enlightening to have survey responses that are variable and unexpected. The fact that respondents hold different views and perceptions when answering a same question makes research interesting and intriguing. For example, some patients consider a three hour waiting time as too long while others may think a one hour waiting time is already too long.

In organizing and grouping data together into graphs and diagrams is also challenging as it requires thoughts on how the data should be presented for the audience’s best understanding and interpretation. While formatting my data, I asked myself questions such as “what do these results mean?”, “what are the connections in the results?”, “how can I group these results together?”, “how should I format the graph? The title?, the axis? the legend?”, “can I understand the graphs without reading the text?”.

Once the results are organized and the graphs are completed, the data becomes more comprehensive and the correlations in the results become easy to identify. Through the experience of data collection and analysis, I learned how to collect data through surveys and observational studies as well as to arrange and compact the results into diagrams for easy visualization and understanding.

  • Process of Secondary Research

Performing secondary research requires a large amount of reading and searching to find the desired information. Reading through various articles on clinic management and the queue system in the healthcare system, I learned about the complicatedness involved in ensuring good patient appointment making, managing the queue, and maximizing patient satisfaction. I now understand that managing clinic appointments is not so simple but can be affected by many variable factors such as doctor arrival time, patient arrival time, appointment cancellations, scheduler experiences, information technology available in the clinic, and many more.

From the secondary papers and articles found, although not all information is applicable for Laurel Medical Centre, there are still many ideas that can be modified to match the needs of the clinic. To illustrate, adding a cafeteria may be more suitable to larger clinics or hospitals while a vending machine is better for Laurel Medical Centre in the matter of offering food for patients.

While researching, it is also exciting to see many studies done in the area of queue in hope to improve the long patient waiting time that is often seen in our healthcare system. Finding connections in the primary and secondary findings is encouraging for writing the recommendation section of the report as secondary results can help support primary findings.

Lastly, reading over research papers while performing secondary research is a great way to learn and see how researchers have formatted and organized their report and how they approached the research topic. For example, I learned the importance of using subheadings to separate different information and create better readability and easier understanding.

  • Process of Organizing and Formatting

Through organizing and formatting the draft report, I learned the necessary components needed in a research report and the importance of including headings, subheadings, and diagrams. Creating the table of contents for the report is especially useful in helping me think through the necessary contents I need in my report and the order for logical flow. As I am formatting my pages, I would consider myself as the audience and ask if the layout allows good readability and understanding.

  • Process of Writing

Writing up the report is not an easy task as there are many things that need to be put into consideration. However, the research proposal and the progress report prepared earlier surely provided a good start and help focus the purpose of the report. As I am writing the report, I would pay specific attention to using you attitude, speaking in active voice, and making the writing concise by not repeating information or using empty phrases. Many more editing and revisions are still needed.

  • Process of Peer Reviewing

The peer review will be carried out soon after this assignment. I believe that it will be very helpful to have another person read over the document and provide advices from the point of view of the audience. As I do the peer review for my partner later on, I will also ensure that I pay attention to the areas that I will focus on in my peer review template on the content, the organization, the style, and the design. I will also take notes from the skills I learn from my peer and incorporate them into mine.

Overall, unit three is a large advancement from unit one or two since there are many components embedded in the research report. Unit three requires us to use the skills learned from the definition assignment in unit 1, the various skills we have been learning about professional and technical writing in you attitude, and the tips to format and organize our documents.