Researching
My research involved an online survey and in-person interviews on corporate volunteering. The surveys were fairly easy to implement as I used Google forms where I just had to add questions and possible answers for the multiple choice questions. However, I realized from Dr. Paterson’s feedback that I was missing the introductory section. Therefore, before distributing the surveys, I added an introduction to tell the participant what the survey is about and how I will be using the results. After a week, I received 9 responses out of 13 employees (minus the CEO and vice president).
In terms of the interviews, it was different as I was conducting them in person. I found out that when conducting in-person interviews, I often had to ask follow-up questions to capture more details about the answer. It was a nice experience because I could get the interviewee to clarify their answer or ask followup questions. In the online surveys, I could not get additional feedback.
Organizing and Writing Formal Report Draft
I felt quite overwhelmed when I started to write the draft because it seemed so difficult to write such as a long report in an organized fashion. To help simplify the process, I looked back at the outline I wrote a couple of weeks ago. I started to narrow down which sections were needed and starting writing headings and subheadings in a logical order. I found this helped me focus on the purpose for each paragraph/section. In addition, it made it easier for me to plan my writing schedule. Instead of trying to write multiple sections in one setting, I could easily come up with a detailed schedule of which subsections I would focus on.
To make it easier for me and the peer reviewer to understand that some sections were incomplete, I made notes about what sections are in progress and some details about the survey I will distribute to another company regarding their volunteer program.
While writing each section, I kept thinking back to the writing with “you” attitude that we learned in this unit. It is definitely an important technique that will help improve our writing. The goal of writing is to communicate with the reader and it would be ineffective if the reader felt that they are not important.
Writing the collected data section was challenging because I had to decide how to present the data and interpretations in an organized fashion so that the reader can easily follow along. First, I decided that I should use pie charts to display some of the answers I obtained from the survey. I presented the answers from the survey and interviews first and then did an analysis of the data received. I felt this was better than constantly bringing up new information that the reader did not encounter.
I learned that writing a report takes a lot of time and it’s definitely better to start earlier and have a plan of how the various sections should be organized. I am glad we made an outline and a progress report with a writing schedule in unit 2.
Peer Reviewing
I peer reviewed Daniel’s draft on “Making Hackathon’s More Beginner Friendly”. It was a very interesting topic because it is something I can personally relate to as a frequent hackathon attendee. I am happy that someone is taking the first step to address this issue. I learned that peer reviewing a longer piece of writing was similar to a shorter piece. I applied the techniques that I learned earlier in the term. It is very important to know what we are looking for before reading the report. First I made a template with general sections like first impressions, content, design and style. After, I added more headings to the content sections. I think this is a good approach because when I am giving suggestions, I can put them in the appropriate section. It would be very difficult for Daniel to have to look through his whole report to find the sentence I am referring to.
I appreciated the fact that Daniel left many notes about the sections that were incomplete, since the event will not take place until this coming weekend. It was much easier for me to see which sections he is planning to write about and give additional suggestions.
I noticed that Daniel was missing the table of contents section. I suggested that he could use the built-in one in Word as I found it easy to implement. The other suggestions were mostly around sentences that I thought could be re-written to sound less awkward. I hope Daniel finds the suggestions that I gave useful for the final report.
In the peer review I received, Daniel pointed out to me that I was missing details about the background on the company and a solid connection between employee satisfaction and volunteer programs. These are important pieces of information that I need to add to make my suggestions persuasive to the reader. I am glad that Daniel pointed this out as it was something that I did not notice while I was writing the draft.
Through peer reviewing, I learned how I can improve my writing by incorporating the strengths of another person’s writing. While receiving feedback, I learn which parts of my writing needs improvement and incorporate some the suggestions the peer reviewer gave. It’s always better to get a second opinion of our writing.