Best Works

English 301 Technical Writing is a course taught by Dr. Erika Paterson at the University of British. Class assignments were meant to refine our writing in a professional context and guide student to develop documents for a myriad of purposes. This page displays a selection of documents that demonstrate my technical writing ability: definition of technical terminology related to my professional field, report proposal, progress report, surveys, interview questions, business letters and peer reviews. Although my education is focused on international trade and finance, the documents outline a variety experiences within multiple organizations and different industries.

Definition of Technical Terminology Assignment

Defining jargon within a professional industry is essential to effective communication. While your colleagues may understand the language that is being used, clarification to different audience can help relay an accurate message. The goal for this assignment was to learn the components of different types of definitions, choose a technical term within your professional field and convey a message to a non-technical audience. Subsequent to my classmate’s peer review, I found success in conveying this technical definition to a non-technical audience by breaking down as many terms as possible.

Debenture Definitions

Introduction

The purpose of this assignment is to demonstrate my knowledge when it comes to when definitions are necessary and how to cater these definitions to varying audiences. To complete this assignment, I will identify an audience and purpose and create three definitions: a parenthetical definition, a sentence definition, and an expanded definition. The expanded definition will utilize a variety of expansion strategies to maximize comprehension of the subject.

Audience and Purpose

I am looking to define debenture for a beginner investor who has had little to no education and experience with corporate finance and investing. In order to begin to build an investment plan for future retirement, a financial advisor could present several money allocation options in different asset classes. A potential option for investors seeking low-risk investments are debentures. The purpose of this definition is to provide insight as to how a beginner investor could use debentures to balance their retirement portfolio.

Parenthetical Definition

The debenture (loan issued by a corporation or government) is a relatively low-risk investment option.

Sentence Definition

Debentures are long-term loans issued by companies or governments, that are backed by general creditworthiness instead of specified assets. These kinds of loans are used to raise money and are also known as unsecured debt, because they depend on the reputation of the issuer instead of physical assets or collateral (BDC).

Expanded Definition

A debenture is a written acknowledgement of indebtedness by the company setting out the terms and conditions of the loan. This definition will explain their purpose, typical features, compare debentures to bonds, some pros and cons, and an example.

Purpose

There are two main purposes for debentures. For companies and governments, they are a means to raise capital or funds for many different purposes (IG.com). For investors, debentures offer periodic interest payments called coupon payments. They are usually seen as a long-term, low risk assessment, especially if the issuer is a government.

 

Figure 1. The process of a debenture starts with the corporation or government entity of the far left – and moves clockwise. The document is meant to show the written acknowledgement of indebtedness, the person is meant to show an individual investor. Finally, the money image is meant to show that the money is paid out to the individual investor when the debenture matures.

Characteristics

Interest Rate: The rate of interest that the company or government will pay the investor.

Credit Rating: Depending on the creditworthiness of the corporation or the government, investors will assess their risk. Credit ratings are provided by agencies that will essentially look through the company’s or governments’ track record of repaying their debt. If they have a history of not paying back their debts, they are deemed as riskier and more speculative investments.

Maturity Date: The maturity date dictates when the company must pay back the investors. This can be done in several ways; paid out in full at the end of the term, or in specific amounts each year. This is advantageous for investors as they know exactly when their money is paid to them.

Debentures vs Bonds

Both bonds and debentures are loans issued by companies and governments, and some investors may confuse them for one another. Outlined below are some key differences:

Bonds are backed by the assets of the issuer, while debentures are not secured by any physical assets or collateral (BDC).

The interest rate of bonds is generally lower than debentures. Because bonds are secured loans, they are inherently lower risk; the lower interest rate depicts the lower risk factor. While debentures give you a higher interest rate, they are unsecured in nature, hence the risk factors is increased (BDC).

Pros and Cons

Pros

A debenture pays a regular interest rate to investors. This is predictable and can help investors manage cash flow for their retirement portfolios. Riskier investments like equity in a company depends on company performance, and the value of your money will fluctuate depending on volatility of share prices.

Cons

Debentures do carry some risk. If the company is not secure or struggle financially, investors are at risk of losing their money.

Example

An example of a debenture would be a U.S. Treasury bond. They are used to finance projects and fund governmental operations (Chen, 2020). While they face the risk of inflation, most investors have faith in the U.S. government and don’t think they will go bankrupt (this unlikely event would devalue the debentures).

Sources

“What is a debenture.” BDC.ca. https://www.bdc.ca/en/articles-tools/entrepreneur-toolkit/templates-business-guides/glossary/pages/debenture.aspx. 

Chen, James. “Debenture.” Investopedia, Feb 25th, 2020. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/debenture.asp.

“What is a debenture?” IG.com. https://www.ig.com/en-ch/glossary-trading-terms/debentures-definition

 

Peer Review of Technical Definition Assignment

Students were asking to review the work of a fellow student. Reviewing assignment instructions and providing constructive feedback to our peers allowed us to uncover mistakes not only to our fellow students, but to ourselves as well.

To: XXX, English 301 Student Writer

From: Matthew Shen, English 301 Student Reviewer

Date: June 9, 2020

Subject: Peer Review for A|B Testing Definitions

I’ve just looked through and reviewed your expanded definition of A|B Testing on our team forum. Thank you for teaching me about this technical term, I think it will be useful to know in the future as it can be applied to a variety of communicative situations.

I don’t need to ask any further questions about the definition itself and your writing made the explanation easy to understand. As you refer back to your situation of the business owners, I can understand how A|B Testing is used with consumers.

There are some revisions that I would recommend, the following are some potential improvements that could be made to your definition:

Organization: The expanded version was broken down into interesting sections and was well cited. You used a variety of sources to put together a complete picture of A|B Testing. Additionally, I liked your use of images to support your example. Some aesthetic edits that could help would be increasing the size of your font for headings or making them differ from your subheadings. This could help direct readers easily throughout your definitions. Finally, I think you could expand more on the compare and contrast. Are there any downsides to A|B Testing in comparison to Multivariable testing? While you mention the cons of multivariable testing (more difficult to set up and more time consuming), you don’t mention the cons of A|B Testing or the potential upside of multivariable testing (although it can probably be inferred).

Voice & Flow: There were some instances during your definition that I found choppy while reading. For example, I think “ The business owners who are a middle-aged couple who run the shop” can be worded differently to help readers read with more ease. Another example would be “  Despite their differences multivariable and a/b testing are often limited to one page,” which I feel like could be a potential run on sentence. If you reread your definition slowly you’ll pick up on these small changes that have to be made.

Purpose and Audience: The paragraphs introducing your definition were clear and concise. You laid out a situation to which A|B Testing could be applied and identified your audience.

I hope my recommendations are of some use to you for editing your assignment. Your assignment is well written and there are just some minor changes that I believe could make it a perfect definition. If you need anymore feedback from me, feel free to reach out to me!

Formal Report Proposal

The formal report proposal was the initial step to create a formal report. Students of the technical writing course were asked to investigate, analyze, and recommend solutions for a problem that was occurring in a familiar organization. The proposal would introduce the problem and ensure the topic was feasible and appropriate.

To: Dr. Erika Paterson

From: Matthew Shen

Date: June 19, 2020

Subject: Proposal for introducing a beach volleyball program at Air Attack Volleyball Club

Introduction

As the largest youth volleyball club in British Columbia, Air Attack offers competitive programs from ages twelve through to age eighteen for both boys and girls, as well as offering development programs for younger athletes, operating out of facilities located in Richmond, BC. The club volleyball program is run from December to May.

Statement of Problem

Air Attack Volleyball Club has approximately 500 athletes that participate in their competitive program from December to May. Additionally, high school volleyball programs are typically run from September to December. Although provincial and national level athletes are training during the summer time (May to August), this currently excludes a majority of the club, who may want to continue some form of volleyball training. Although there are beach volleyball tournaments hosted by Volleyball BC, there are no current options for athletes of Air Attack to participate in formal beach training and skill development during the summer.

Proposed Solution

A potential solution would be to start a beach volleyball training program as a branch of the current volleyball club. There are several location options including Spanish Banks, Shaughnessy Park, or Six Pack indoor beach to run this program. Gathering data about potential individual participation and consequently obtaining approval from the club’s Board of Directors would be the first step to implementing this potential solution.

Scope

To identify the feasibility of the proposed solutions I plan to pursue seven areas of inquiry:

• How many athletes from Air Attack’s current roster are regularly participating in beach volleyball tournaments without formal training?
• How do current athletes feel about a beach volleyball training program?
• Approximately how many coaches would the club need to hire to manage a group of athletes?
• What are the approximate costs of running a beach volleyball program throughout the course of the summer?
• How long should training sessions be and during what time of day?
• Which locations are the most cost efficient and convenient for the athletes and coaches?
• What are other potential legal issues that could arise with a formal beach training program?

Methods

My primary source of data will be interviews and surveys that are conducted with current athletes of Air Attack Volleyball Club. I also plan on distributing online surveys to coaches at the club, to identify their experience with beach volleyball and their potential availability during the summer time.

My Qualifications

I have spent more than 6 years of coaching at Air Attack Volleyball Club for their indoor program, which has provided me with an understanding of how to cater programs to certain athletes. Additionally, I have been an athlete and coach in several different beach volleyball training programs throughout the province, which has provided me with unique insight as to how a program should be properly run. Being a current member of Air Attack Volleyball Club and having close relationships with the athletes, I have the opportunity to implement and evaluate the proposed solutions on an ongoing basis. Throughout my six years of coaching, my relations with the board of directors and the coaches at the club have been excellent, and there should not be any problems obtaining accurate feedback and data.

Conclusion

Immediate action should be taken to see if we can begin this beach volleyball training with a small group of athletes in the summer of 2020. If the program is deemed successful (number of interested athletes, cost efficient) with this group, we can evaluate the logistics and implement the program for the entire club in the summer of 2021. By addressing the areas of inquiry listed above, I will be able to determine the feasibility of my proposed solution. With your approval, I will begin my research as soon as possible.

 

Progress Report

The progress report assignment asked students to familiarize themselves with their audience. Understanding the audience’s expertise and experiences can lead to well-informed research questions and accurate sample data. As this assignment asked students to research an organization they were familiar with, defining the specifics of audiences was not difficult.

To: Dr. Erika Paterson, Professor English Technical Writing UBC

From: Matthew Shen, Student English Technical Writing UBC

Date: July 10, 2020

Subject: Progress Report

As requested in Unit 2:3 instruction, a report detailing the key aspects and progress of the project has been prepared. Any feedback regarding the scope of research and schedule would be highly appreciated.

Audience

This proposal would be addressed to the current Air Attack Board of Directors: Travis McClellan (President), David Tam (Vice-President), Eric Chan (Treasurer) and Josh Campbell (Member-at-Large). With their help, the plan could be approved and implemented in a trial phase and evaluated in terms of athlete satisfaction and cost efficiency.

Purpose

To make recommendations for creating a beach volleyball training program during the summer time (May to August) where athletes currently participate in competitive tournaments without formal training and skill development.

Significance

Air Attack Volleyball Club is the largest youth volleyball club in British Columbia but have not established any formal training during a large portion of the year. Additionally, there are a small number of clubs who run a beach volleyball program during the summer; if the program attracts athletes from other clubs, this could help recruit potential talent to the indoor volleyball program.

Research Plan

• Create interview questions for board of directors
• Create survey for current players
• Create survey for current coaches
• Evaluate potential locations
• Calculate feasible costs for program
• Transcribe and evaluate responses from interviews and surveys
• Create guide based on interview responses
• Obtain approval for guide publication
• Publish

Writing Schedule

• Compose interview and survey questions – Complete
• Obtain email list for current club members – Complete
• Create cost/benefit analysis for locations – July 12, 2020
• Create budget and determine feasibility – July 14, 2020
• Distribute surveys and complete interviews – July 15, 2020
• Transcribe completed responses – July 20, 2020
• Analyze data – July 23, 2020
• Present recommendations to audience – July 26, 2020

Thank you for reviewing the progress of this project. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Enclosures:

Interview Questions for Board of Directors: Interview-Questions

Survey for players: https://forms.gle/9n7QMjKvZZfRkxuv8

Survey for coaches: https://forms.gle/dJnudCDfvhrSvnYF9

Formal Report

A copy of the formal report referred to in the report proposal and progress report is attached below. The report identifies an opportunity to improve an organization, and assesses the feasibility of creating a beach volleyball summer program at Air Attack Volleyball Club. The assignment found success in generating a significant sample size for surveys and interviews.

Formal Report: Matthew Shen

Business Letters

This assignment was focused on understanding audience. While delivering bad news or complaining about certain situations, it is critical to emphasize with your reader, focus on potential solutions, and above all, maintain a positive attitude. This assignment found success in its real life application, as the emails conveyed below include a common situation when engaging with companies and transactions.

 

Letter of Complaint

Matthew Shen

10140 Buttermere Drive,

Richmond, BC, V7A 1R8

Phone (778) 883-1950 Email matthewhpshen@gmail.com

 

July 23^rd, 2020

 

HSBC Vancouver

885 West Georgia Street

Vancouver, BC, V6C 3E9

Phone 1-888-310-4722 Email support@hsbc.ca

 

 

Dear HSBC Customer Service,

I am writing to request an account closure and to file a complaint. I have been an HSBC customer for over a year, and it has been a convenient way to complete my daily banking. However, I feel frustrated and disappointed with the branch service as of recently.

On June 25^th, I attempted to use the HSBC online banking site to close one of my accounts, as I felt the cash balance of $5,000 being maintained inside the account could be put to better use. As instructed by your online banking site, I left the account at a nil balance so that a closure could be processed. Several days later (July 2^nd), a representative from HSBC contacted me and said the account closure could not be processed as there was a negative balance in the account. I had been charged a $25 monthly fee as a result of not maintaining the original balance. However, if the account had been closed as instructed on the 25^th or even anytime before the month end, this would not have occurred. I called customer service (1 (888) 310-4722) to alert them of this issue and request for a fee reversal. After almost an hour of being put on hold, the phone representative was unfortunately very rude and was unwilling to reverse any fees, claiming it was my fault for not maintaining my balance.

Despite my efforts calling to the HSBC Customer Service call center, they were unable to fulfil my requests or offer any alternative solutions.

I ask that the $25 fee be reversed. HSBC’s website states that it will process all customer issues and requests within two business days, but this is not the case in my situation. While I understand the pandemic has made it difficult for businesses to operate as usual, I am disappointed with the tardiness and quality of service I received as a long-time client.

I would love to continue using HSBC as I still have several accounts in good standing with your bank, and I am hoping that this issue can be resolved in a timely manner.

Sincerely,

 

 

 

Matthew Shen

HSBC Client

 

Response Letter

Peer Review of Formal Report

Upon completion of the formal report draft, students were asked to peer review a fellow classmate’s report. In addition to correcting surface level mistakes like punctuation and formatting, editing was ensured the reports were written with a YOU attitude and provided enough evidence to support their overall claims.

 

To: XXX, English 301 Student Writer

From: Matthew Shen, English 301 Student Reviewer

Date: August 5, 2020

Subject: Review of Formal Report-Streamlining direct internal communication channels for ACC Mumbai Head Office

Thank you for submitting the draft of your formal report: Streamlining direct internal communication channels for ACC Mumbai Head Office. It was very detailed and informative. The report included extensive research, attractive visuals, and all requested aspects of the assignment. Revision of grammar and some formatting would improve the final draft. Please consider the following feedback during revision:

First Impressions: The subject matter is well researched, and credibility is established from the introduction. The writing conveys to the audience that the author is well-versed on the topic, and evidence is presented to support report’s scope. Some spelling errors are noticeable at first glance.

Organization:

• Table of contents is well divided and accurate
• Explanation, analysis and conclusion flow together and are logical
• Page Formatting and use of header is appropriate

Content: The report contains extensive valuable information but currently is over the recommended page length. The report may want to filter out less essential information or condense the figures to fit this recommended length.

Introduction:

• Interesting anecdotal information speaks to credibility and expertise
• Provided a brief introduction that acknowledges the audience’s knowledge of the situation
• Structured the introduction in a engaging way, describing the problem, scope and purpose of the report

Methods:

• Good description of research methods
• Collected data from a diverse range of employees and provided a good sample size, although there may be a need to be more detailed about the demographics of survey responders

              Data Section:

• May want to describe the demographic of employees that are answering the surveys if possible, would help provide more evidence
• Highlights the noteworthy findings
• Interprets the data for the reader
• May want to situate table and figures directly in the data section, which will eliminate the need to flip back and forth through different pages

Conclusions:

• Recommendations are reasonable and address several possibilities
• Summary of findings briefly describes the problem in a detailed manner
• Report translates the data obtained from surveys and successfully identifies the shortcoming of the current communication channels

Visuals/Figures:

• The figures and colorful and easy to identify
• Graphs are all labelled correctly and help readers understand the data being presented
• May want to include some limitations of the visuals and figures used

References:

• Could use more references to support evidence during introduction and when speaking about communication channels
• Does not include a references section, may want to include

Style/Tone:

• The document used a friendly tone that was addressed appropriately to your audience
• The correct “you” attitude was employed
• Attention was paid towards addressing a knowledgeable audience, acknowledged their expertise
• The tone in the report was never negative, even when identifying shortcomings in communication structure

Grammar/Typos: The document has some typos and grammatical errors that are easy to fix by combing through with a spell-check. Here are some example, the errors are underlined:

“Poor Communications entails ineffective or inefficient processes of exchanging ormation. ACC should aim to avoid poor communication in order.”

“This report aims to synthesise and present data about the efficiency of the current direct communication methods at the ACC Mumbai head office.”

“On the other hand most stated that Email and Whatsapp were not very efficient for their general communication. employees often agree that these communications do not efficiently meet all their specific communication needs.”

Concluding Statements: This report is detailed in investigating important issues to the company and deserves the attention of Philip Mathew. With the following adjustments, the document can be improved:

• Reducing the word count of some sentences to increase clarity
• Fixing spelling and grammatical errors
• Improving the spacing will increase readability

It was a pleasure reviewing this report for ACC Mumbai Head Office. Your ideas would be appropriate in generating improvements in the company. I hope the suggestions are helpful in completing the assignment. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Thank you.

 

Peer Review of Application Package

The application package assignment consisted of the construction of résumés, cover letters, and requests for letters of reference. Once the application packages were completed, students were asked to peer review a fellow student’s assignment. This would ensure their writing to potential employers would be succinct and error-free upon submission. Success was found in this peer review as the application package was created with obvious attention to detail, something that could be implemented in various personal future assignments.

Author: XXX, ENGL 301 Student

Peer Reviewer: Matthew Shen, ENGL 301 Student

Date: August 15, 2020

Subject: Peer Review of Application Package

Thank you for submitting your application package.

First Impressions:

This is a comprehensive application package that provides evidence of tenured experience and abilities. The formatting is professional and concise. At first glance, a very good impression is conveyed. However, this can be potentially improved with some minor suggestions that have been outlined below:

Cover Letter:

• The cover letter is divided into three paragraphs that highlight various qualities that the job advertisement is seeking.
• Formatting is clean and document can be read easily.
• May want to establish some sort of connection to Stripe to demonstrate why you would like to work at their company specifically. This could be done in several ways, such as differentiating this company to their competitors, speaking about someone who introduced you to the company, etc.
• If a possibility, find the specific hiring manager at Stripe and address them personally.
• Uses examples to illustrate your skillset, discussed applications from your past.
• Some opportunities to remove pronouns and clarify your position in the final paragraph:

-Please call (123) 456-7890 and email my.name@email.com to discuss my suitability for this position.

-As observed on the resume, all requirements of the position are met and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Resume:

• The document is clean and uncluttered. It covers a full page, and the space is used to its maximum advantage.
• The order of listed experiences make logical sense and is relevant to job advertisement.
• Consider an objective section to further target the job advertisement description.

Reference Requests:

• Each letter is well formatted and has a professional tone.
• The letters follow a shared structure with a standardized introduction and conclusion and an individualized body section that outlines the experience with your reference.
• Attached copy of resume and LinkedIn with each request helps the reference remember your expertise and skillset.

Grammar and Typos:

• Very few grammar mistakes are seen

Concluding Statements:

This is a strong application package; it demonstrates your skills and experience and is made specifically for the job advertisement. Your extensive knowledge and experience will be an asset that separates you from other candidates who may be applying to the same job. Here is a summary of the suggestions listed above:

• Removing unnecessary personal pronouns
• Finding specifics about the hiring manager at Stripe and developing other connections to the company
• Considering an objectives section in the resume

Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you.