As seen in the home page, my initial perceptions of this course involved learning techniques relevant to my professional life. I believed the course would assist me in developing many professional platforms which I lacked, such as my LinkedIn profile. I thought the course as a whole was amazing and almost unfair in that it boosted my career-based skills immensely, yet counted toward academics as well. I have since realized that academic and professional life is intertwined, and that this course did fulfill my expectations completely, however constant practice is still needed for continued improvement.
Strengths and Weaknesses;
Throughout the course, the learning process is evident in my writing skills, yet involved considerable constant effort. Initially overwhelmed by the sheer amount of assignments that this course entailed, I committed them to a calendar, an organizational task that I was completely unfamiliar with. Surprisingly, my ability to stay on top of the course and complete required assignments by the deadlines improved as the semester progressed, although I did stop using the calendar. The course made me realize a prominent weakness of mine: my organizational skills, which impacted my time management. Although my time management is generally sufficient, when coupled with subpar organization, it can lead to last-minute completion of assignments, tasks, and even falling behind in life goals. This course allowed me to gradually improve my organization, although it is an uphill battle and will take continued effort in every aspect of my life to maintain.
The assignment tasks and content taught in the course allowed me to identify a personal strength that improved with time: writing. Although technical writing may not have been a skill of mine, I found myself writing coherently and clearly, and practice improved this. The peer reviews assisted in advancement of my critical evaluation skills, and the memorandums conciseness. Most noticeably, the “You Attitude” had the largest impact on my writing. To understand that writing is designed for the reader and not oneself is a concept that I initially struggled to grasp. With introduction of this writing style, I found my writing to be much more persuasive and agreeable, which definitely has real-world applications in communication, whether it be through the job market or academia.
Applying the Skills to the Future
Generally, the skills garnered throughout the course translate superbly to my future. Whether applying for summer studentships, exchanging emails with professors, or just even in casual conversation, the positive tone and deemphasis on imperative verbs will ensure that the reader or listener is attentive and not distracted or dissuaded by taking offence to my tone. My critical evaluation skills will be of great use in assisting with manuscript-editing or experiment-writing in a lab-based setting, a large portion of my life next semester. In terms of long-term goals, my newfound conciseness will allow me to communicate my main arguments effectively, without getting bogged down in details where reader/listener interest may be lost. This is of particular relevance in report-writing and interviews, where the audience does not have a lot of time. My strong resume/curriculum vitae will assist with my applications to jobs in Co-op next year, and looking past Co-op, the strong application package serves as an excellent template for graduate school, such as medical school. My LinkedIn, a constant work-in-progress will assist in template design for Co-op and medical school applications as well. Overall, I am pleased that my initial course expectations have been fulfilled, and I plan to use the strengths and skills acquired through this course throughout my future to achieve my goals, both professional and academic.
The final part of this assignment was a peer feedback on our own proposals. I found it surprising that my peer decided to reject my report on the basis of its open-ended nature. With this novel feedback, I immediately noticed the gaps: the scope of my proposal was large, requiring a multi-faceted solution that was explored in all but one paragraph. I have subsequently expanded this paragraph into multiple that focus on each facet of the solution. I am thankful that my peer caught this error, as it may have hindered the implementation of the suggestions that my proposal intended to provide. In addition, I was notified of multiple tricky grammatical errors which I lacked the syntactical knowledge to resolve on my own. Ultimately, I am grateful to my writing team member for providing such a thorough, yet constructive review conducive to a well-written final draft in December.
