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