Luke Zhang's Web Folio

I have learned a lot from this course, not only about technical writing, but being able to organize my application package and web portfolio into a presentable manner. I enjoyed having weekly assignments that not only challenged our own writing capabilities, but also our ability to analyze and evaluate our peer’s work. Through this process I was able to get immediate feedback on my assignments and also keep my writing skills fresh and on point through the weekly tasks.

For my strengths, I feel I am able to empathize with my readers fairly well. I enjoyed doing the definitions and You attitude assignments because when I write a letter to communicate with another party, I always tailor my words with consideration of the other party’s opinions. These exercises will definitely help when working in the industry professionally. It is important to have good communication between co-workers, so there’s more time spent on solving a problem the team is working on rather than piecing together the meaning behind someone’s words.

My weaknesses are that I have trouble identifying and evaluating my peer’s work. This can stem from a lack of practice in writing in general. As a computer science student, my courses never put writing as a emphasis and I was never keen on developing my own writing skills. Through this course I was able to practice both writing and evaluating my peer’s writing. From my peer’s evaluations I took careful note of their recommendations and applied them to not only the assignment that was being reviewed at hand, but also future assignments as well. Although I still require more practice in this area, I feel I have made progress and will work towards improving my weaknesses through the techniques I have learned in this course.

Creating the web folio was a great exercise that allowed us to reflect back on all of the assignments that we have completed over the course of the term. Although I was surprised at first about the idea of completing revamping the homepage that we used throughout the term to accommodate for this assignment, I am excited about the prospect of having a presentable web folio to showcase my accomplishments in this course as well as putting together a greater application package.

I first began this assignment by creating small stubs for each of the required pages to be created. I made sure all of the pages and menus were labelled correctly with headings that were easy to identify which page the reader was on. I then created and added to the pages all of the necessary files required for that page. From there I began to write the description for each file I added. This process allowed me to first focus on organizing and tailoring the web folio to my needs. Once I was satisfied with the layout of the web folio, I was able to concentrate on writing descriptions and summaries for each file and page without having to pause in between and interrupt my writing flow.

Once the web folio was finished, I was able to reflect on all of my achievements this term for English 301. Although each assignment was fairly small and short in length, working on these small tasks every week add up to a lot of work that was accomplished through a short period of a few months. I am proud of all the work I have accomplished and will definitely think about creating my own web folio in the future.

At the start of the unit we took a look at writing letters from the reader’s perspective. Through the exercises of writing the complaint and “bad news” letters, I was able to not just get my own opinion and thoughts across to the reader, but to also mold the message in such a way that the reader is willing to read the letter and respond in an objective manner. It is not simply as easy as always being polite to the reader, as a writer I also need to make sure the reader will take my point into serious consideration. These exercises will hopefully allow me to professionally address future issues with a colleague or co-worker without being too hesitant or too forceful.

It was a little difficult for me to begin the first draft of my formal report. I feel like I chose a fairly technical topic and had some trouble toning down the technical jargon and definitions that readers outside of the industry would have a hard time understanding. I feel in my first draft I was able to get my points across fairly clearly, but I can still work to make certain sections transition better to improve the overall organization of the paper. Through writing future drafts and the final copy, I will work to include more data from my research findings and present them in detailed illustrations that will improve the quality of the research report. I will also aim to find a finalized solution to the problem of implementing automated testing as a recommendations section after the conclusion.

For this peer review, we reviewed a much longer work compared to the other peer reviews we had. I felt that reading over the longer research report draft, I was able to find much more points for my partner to improve on. A side effect of this is also that the report was in an incomplete state and was much easier to pick on mistakes. Therefore, some of my suggestions may seem obvious to my partner as she has not formalized the structure and content yet. Despite this I do feel I was able to identify areas of improvement and give constructive criticism much better than previous peer reviews.

For a couple of years I have had a LinkedIn profile, but I have never bothered to update it.
Through taking this course, I have learned different techniques to having a much improved LinkedIn profile that makes it look more organized and professional. I am now motivated to keep it updated to improve my chances at job searching.

The formal report for me will be largely determined by the survey responses and interviews I will conduct on site. Although I feel like my questions will help address the topic well, the small sample size may cause mixed responses on the subject of automated testing which leads to no real conclusion. However, I feel that I have a strong topic and will continue researching into the area.

In my peer reviews I have found it challenging to find areas of improvement in my group’s work. Part of it is that my group does a very good job at writing well constructed outlines and creating appealing profiles, but I feel I can also do a better job at identifying improvements they can make that will lead to an even better technical writing piece.

ENGL301 Luke Zhang Formal Research Proposal

Peer Review of Research Proposal

During the writing process for defining my chosen term, “algorithm”, it was challenging to phrase my sentences to help an audience that may not be in the same industry as myself. There are sometimes when I wished to use a term that the average would have found confusing and would have posed more questions than answers. Throughout the assignment I had to put myself into the audience’s shoes and try to flesh my knowledge of the term out of my mind.

The biggest issue I had during writing my definition was that I did not expand on new concepts very well. I would say something like, “there exists more optimal algorithms”, but I did not elaborate or give an example of a situation where a better algorithm existed. The reader may be curious how a more optimal algorithm compares to a less optimal one, and I need to take that into consideration during any technical writing.

In the process of peer reviews, I feel that I can add more encouraging words to help the person being reviewed not become discouraged and possibly ignore the suggestions. When reading my peer’s review of my definitions I felt more motivated to edit and take in his suggestions, but I did not feel that way in my own peer review of someone else. In future peer reviews I’m going to improve on this aspect to be more uplifting while giving good feedback.

ENGL301 Luke Zhang Definitions

Daniel Gipps’s Review

September 19,2015

English 301 classmate

UBC

Vancouver, BC

Dear English 301 classmates,

Please accept this letter as an official application to for your ENGL 301 professional writing team for this term. I am a fifth year Computer Science student at the University of British Columbia working towards a Bachelor of Science Degree.

In the last few years, I was enrolled in UBC’s Computer Science Co-op program. While in the program I was given the opportunity to work with different companies in a professional environment for about two years. Through the job searching process, I have learned and acquired skills in writing cover letters and formatting my resume to attract potential employers. I have worked both as a Software Tester and Developer. In both positions it was necessary to communicate effectively with the respective teams through email and instant messaging applications. I was also responsible for writing documentation to things such as new test cases for an out-dated test plan and a new API that was implemented by me for other developers to use. I was also required by the Co-op program to write a formal ten page report at the end of each term about the job experience for which I was given good feedback.

At school, many of my courses involve group projects that require us to work well together as a team. I have worked on these projects with people I know and those who I am not familiar with. I have learned to be a team player and be able to carry my own weight as well as help others in their need. In addition to my regular courses, I have also worked as a teaching assistant at UBC. I was able to effectively present my solution to tutorial problems and assist the students in completing difficult assignments and practice exam questions. However, because of the scientific nature of my degree, I have not dabbled much in writing during my stay at UBC. I am dedicated to take this course and improve my skills in this area by the time of graduation.

I feel this is a great opportunity for me to improve my knowledge of technical while bringing a hardworking and positive attitude to assist the writing team. I am looking forward to hearing from your writing team. Please contact me at lukezhang1062@gmail.com. Thank you for taking the time to consider my application.

Yours Sincerely,

Luke Zhang

301 Luke Zhang Letter of Application