Monthly Archives: April 2023

The completion of the Unit 4 Web Folio marks the end of the technical writing course. The course has been a challenging, yet fulfilling experience in developing robust writing techniques that are applicable in many professional writing environments. The course has helped me identify my weaknesses and strengths through challenging technical writing exercises and through the peer review process.

The several weaknesses that have been noted in my writing throughout the course includes the use of imperative verbs, incorrect document formatting, and the mix use of past or present tense. My strengths that have been noted is my use of consistent tone, thoughtful and comprehensive peer review, as well as organized writing structure. As the course progressed, I’ve made the effort to eliminate my use of imperative verbs and focus on the positive as suggested. With these small changes to my writing, I’ve noticed an improved level of persuasion and consistency in tone.

The technical writing techniques such as writing with YOU attitude, avoiding the use of imperative verbs, and understanding the peer review process has been incredibly important in improving my technical writing style. These technical writing techniques have made my constructive feedback more effective and ensures respect for my reader. These are writing techniques I will continue to practice and carry into my future career when working with future colleagues and writing technical documents.

In Unit 4, students are challenged to create an online Web Folio that is specific to our future goals, such as focusing on either highlighting academic achievements for graduate school or highlighting marketable skills for the job market.

My Web Folio has been designed to highlight my marketable skills and experiences for the job market. It consists of 6 required sections as outlined in the Web Folio assignment criteria. The main pages included are the home page, about me page, blog page, resume page, application package page, and best work page. My Web Folio also has additional information such as a detailed home page with hyperlinks and visuals, as well as a separate LinkedIn page that adds a professional appearance to the Web Folio.

My personal challenge for creating this Web Folio consists of ensuring the tone and presentation of the portfolio’s theme is consistent throughout the website. It was also a challenge formatting the Web Folio to highlight all the written works without making the Web Folio pages appear cluttered, while also ensuring that all the revised written works are presented. Another detail, was ensuring the organization of the Web Folio was intuitive for my audience to navigate. Overcoming these challenges required some experimentation with the WordPress page tools and numerous revisions. In the end, all the pages eventually came together into a neatly organized Web Folio.

In Unit 3, students were introduced to new technical writing techniques and writing formats. The first section of Unit 3 introduced us to the importance of writing with YOU attitude by writing feedback to a mock English 301 student named Evan Crisp. The second section of Unit 3 involves students drafting a formal report as a continuation of the previous assigned formal proposal and outline. The third section requires students to take what was learned in section one and two of Unit 3 and apply their knowledge into writing a peer review of a real fellow student’s formal report draft. 

Writing with the Right Attitude: YOU attitude 

The first section of Unit 3 introduces the technique of writing with “You Attitude.” This technique utilizes a reader centered approach that considers the point of view of the reader. It is a writing style that ensures that the opinion of the reader is valued by expressing appreciation from the writer and avoiding commanding or negative language that may come across as aggressive or indecisive. My written memorandum to Evan Crisp incorporated these writing strategies and avoided the use of imperatives, while focusing on highlighting the positives. I learned that avoiding the use of “you” is an important strategy to avoid a condescending tone or assigning blame to the reader. 

The Formal Report Draft 

The second section of Unit 2 is a continuation of the formal report where students are tasked with writing the draft for the formal report. We begin with incorporating the information from the written proposal, outline, and data collected towards the completion of a formal report draft. This assignment involved the task of completing a working title page, table of contents, introduction, body, and conclusion of our formal report. The challenge for this assignment is being able to adhere to the structure of writing a formal report and conveying the data collected from the surveys into a cohesive discussion and conclusion for the intended reader.  

Peer Review of Formal Report Draft 

The third section of Unit 3 requires students to partner up and peer review each other’s formal report drafts. The challenge of this assignment is being able to take the skills and techniques learned from writing with “You” attitude and applying them into providing feedback to the formal report draft from section two of Unit 2. Reviewing the techniques in the YOU attitude module and the instructor’s blog was especially helpful in ensuring that reader focused tone is consistent throughout the peer review. This assignment yielded the opportunity to review our peers’ work and allowed us to experience a different perspective on writing a formal report.  

Unit 3 has been a challenging unit that involves learning to draft a technical formal report and a new writing style and then applying it directly into peer reviewing is the most complex technical writing assignment we’ve had in the course thus far. 

Enclosure:ENGL-301-Michael-Ly-Formal-Report-Draft