Reflecting on your own work is not always an easy process. It is all too easy to get carried away by a train of thought when writing. Even if you understand this point after reading it through, it is ultimately whether or not your audience understands your work that is important. This is why the peer review process is so important. I will look back on this and other elements of what I’ve learned and created in this course.
Reflecting on the Learning Process and Assignments
The interactive and collaborative nature of this course is unlike any other I have taken at UBC. Although online courses are typically more challenging since professors and students must communicate digitally. Despite this, the combination of Facebook, e-mailing, the course website and my team members provided more than enough knowledge on the assignments particulars.
One weakness I noticed in my learning process was effective time management. While nearly every assignment was submitted on time, I could have been more proactive in asking questions of my peers. So, while I knew the information I needed was there, I sometimes made decisions on assignment particulars as I saw fit, without knowing the best way to approach it. In the future, I will ask questions before, rather than after submitting my work.
Despite this, I learned that one of my skills is communicating with peers in writing. In negotiating with my team members on the details of the peer review process, I remained professional and courteous to my peers. How fitting, in a course on technical writing! My peers also provided some useful insights on my writing techniques. Through the peer reviews, I learned that I need to vary my sentence structure more, and use more concise language. I also found out that taking a break and then reading my work over was incredibly beneficial.
How the Skills I’ve Learned Will Help Me in the Future
Being able to communicate both with my peers and with specific audiences will be useful in my future. I intend to go to graduate school and become an urban planner. Planners must communicate every day with a variety of stakeholders in their projects. This course has helped me learn how to write with a specific audience in mind. Planners must also present their projects to members of the public on a regular basis. Since speaking is so tied to writing, the conciseness of our writing will help me be short and to the point in future presentations.
Business Conference and Presentation. Audience at the conference hall.