As a whole, Unit 2 felt to be a big step up in workload and progress for me. The initial assignment (2.1: Formal Report Proposal) felt perhaps the most challenging to complete. Deciding upon a topic which was both attainable to research and a subject in which I am knowledgeable and passionate appeared to be the biggest obstacle upon starting. Moving through the assignment, however, I struggled to articulate my goals and purposes in a clear and concise form. By a huge degree more than in Unit 1, the process of peer review and professor feedback felt critical. Jackson’s peer review was incredibly insightful, knowledgeable and specific in addressing my work. He was gentle in his criticism but made some very valuable suggestions. The professor feedback confirmed his suggestions, and made me feel extremely critical of my initial writing. I was able to return to my proposal with new vigour, shortening my sentences, reclaiming my active voice, and cutting extra fat from my overly ornate writing. The giant takeaway I gained from this assignment was less is more, ie. simplicity and specificity is often the most effective.
Beyond this proposal, the Formal Report Outline and Progress Report felt more effortless and were beneficial in laying out my specific goals for the report, envisioning the structure of the report, and developing a timeline for the next few weeks. Although I am very anxious at the work ahead in compiling my research and surveys, as well as developing a comprehensive report, these smaller assignments helped ease this anxiety slightly.
The LinkedIn profile assignment (Assignment 2.2) definitely felt more natural and less challenging than the Formal Report Proposal, as I already had a pre-existing LinkedIn account. Certain key aspects of my profile were, however, missing including a “Summary”. Perhaps the most interesting and enlightening portion of the assignment was my research into LinkedIn best practices and the subsequent creation of my own “Best Practices”. Here I learned a huge amount about the informative yet professional voice necessary in projecting yourself on LinkedIn, the importance of the quality of your Summary and profile photo as first impressions, and staying active on LinkedIn beyond creation of a profile. The benefit of features such as “Groups” and “Pulse” were previously unbeknownst to me and I was extremely excited to learn about the huge breadth of networking tactics that can be applied to this social networking platform. Overall, this assignment felt like a very positive first step in developing a strong and comprehensive application package.
Click here to view Jackson’s review of my initial Formal Report Proposal, and see the link below for a .docx copy of my revised report: