Unit Three of ENGL 301 showed the same steep progression in demand and learning that I felt in Unit Two. Certain aspects of the course have satisfyingly become habit; memos to peers feel absolutely natural, navigating the course website and textbook is easy and normal, and my understanding of the course structure and rhythm is much more thorough. With these newfound habits, however, have come newfound challenges and changes in the course. The Formal Report Draft was both the most substantial and challenging assignment we have seen thus far. Although my understanding of the specific goals of my report was extremely strong by the time I actually began it, the process of researching, writing, and organizing was still very challenging.
Perhaps the most smooth step of my Formal Report drafting was the research. As Our Community Bikes is an organization in which I was intimately involved for some time, I am still quite close with some of the core staff members and felt comfortable with interviewing them. Because I feel my questions were quite open ended and not necessarily critical of the organization, the interviews did not have a negative tone. The most difficult stage of interviewing was by far scheduling time with staff members and coercing those who I did not know so intimately to discuss with me. This was definitely an excellent exercise in persistent yet respectful communication.
Organization of these research results was definitely challenging. So much information obtained in interviewing was extremely intriguing and exciting for me personally but was not necessarily directly relevant to the specific topic of my formal report. Most difficult was cutting information and concising the amount of data included in the body of my text to most directly communicate my point without overwhelming or boring the reader with excess information. In the end, I was pleased with my execution of this despite the difficulty.
In turn, organizing the layout and progression of my report was the final hurdle. After constructing this, and condensing my data, the actual writing process felt easy and natural. Although I had already completed an outline, after the research process and further modification of my initial ideas based on this, I essentially had to overhaul my initial outline and begin again. Creating headings, subheadings, and a progression for my report was extremely useful in refining my ideas, understanding exactly the points I aimed to make, and understanding the order in which I wished to do so.
Finally, peer reviewing acted as a great opportunity, as it has been throughout this course, to reflect and gain inspiration from the work of my peers. Anastassiya did an impressive job of her report and as always, I was impressed with her direct language and her clear, strong writing. Her figures were great, and the degree to which they accentuated my understanding of her report certainly inspired me to focus a great deal more energy on the remainder of my own figures. Anastassiya’s review was fair and useful, and I was relieved that she seemed to have an overall positive response to my report. Her suggestions were very specific and attainable, such as revising my current use of acronyms and clearly outlining them at the beginning of the report. These suggestions will definitely be applied in my final draft of my Formal Report.