Hello fellow peers! I hope everyone’s semester is off to a great start. I cannot believe we are already half way through it- this makes me both excited, and nervous as Christmas is fast approaching! I am very happy to report that this English course is going a lot better than I expected it to, I guess it helps that I am self-disciplined so staying on top of things are no problem. For unit two I got to polish my skills with memorandums, which is now an easy concept for me! I also completed my report proposal and outline, questions for my survey and interviews for data collection for my report, and my very own LinkedIn profile. During unit two I was able to peer review two different colleagues works including a report proposal and a LinkedIn profile page.

I must say before starting the course the one thing I was really looking forward to was creating my own LinkedIn page. I am not a social media person at all, so in some ways it was a bit of a challenge for me to navigate through their platform – but I am happy with the end result! LinkedIn was very helpful as it had pop ups and reminders for me to complete my page, and to add things to this section, etc. so it was nice to have the help from their end on what I all needed to add. The thought of having a professional social media network does make me feel a bit anxious when I think about it. I just don’t care for people I don’t know to see all my qualifications, etc. but I do understand how and why networking is becoming a real thing in this day and age and I’m hoping I will feel a bit more at ease when I get more comfortable using it!

When brainstorming an idea for my formal report, I felt defeated. I was very unsure of what topic I would choose. It took me a good couple of days pondering over the ideas in my head and bouncing ideas back and forth with my mom! I knew for sure I wanted to do something in the realm of my career at the dental office, so I went over many options. It almost seemed like a light bulb went off in my head when I said the title out loud ‘How to decrease needlestick injuries at Arden Park Dental’. After this, it was apparent that this was the right topic for me to report on because so many ideas came forth of what I should include. The proposal and outline for my report were fairly easy to complete as the topic I chose was something that I am familiar with. It did take a bit of time to do the readings for this section, as expected but they helped me to succeed in completing an outline and proposal. After creating the survey questionnaire and interview questions for my data collection, it felt good as I now had everything I needed to do my memorandum for my progress report. I am definitely the type to stay on top of all tasks and it was great to do the progress report memo to see a layout of my writing schedule. I feel like this visual helped me a lot to see where I must manage my tasks and time. With saying this, I am pleased with the progress I have made this far with my report and can see how it will all come together! I am actually excited to hand out my surveys and conduct my interviews, as I know this is going to be very beneficial for my place of work.

The peer review process for unit two was a much easier process, since we had some practice in unit one already. I really enjoyed getting to read over my teammate Jenny Zhang’s report proposal for the first peer review, as it was neat to see what someone else chose for their topic! (at this point I was kind of sick of reading over my own proposal, so it was a nice change!) I feel like my peer review was positive and had a few points of constructive edits to help my team mate out – these points included a few grammar and punctuation corrections, as well as adding in-text citations. For the second peer review I completed for unit two was for the LinkedIn profile for my teammate Janice Pang. This was a cool and unique task as it was different as I had to create my own form and template to review it in the first place. I thought it was an interesting approach because it felt like the actual peer review process of Janice’s LinkedIn page was easier for me to complete as I knew the criteria I was evaluating. With doing the peer reviews for unit two I learnt that everyone has different writing styles, and everyone’s writing needs reviewing! After reading through my team’s forum, I believe it has helped me to become a better writer. It’s very helpful to have my teammates and seeing how each of them bring something different to the table with their writing styles and experiences. I graciously accept any feedback they have given me with the peer reviews, as I understand how some of my writings may need revision. I don’t necessarily feel surprised by any of the works I have read from my team mates, as mentioned before it’s nice to have four different writing styles on our team! I think now that I have a couple of peer reviews under my belt it has helped me better to self edit and revise my work before posting, which is great as I feel like it has strengthened my writing skills.

All in all unit two has been very informative for me as a professional. I enjoyed all aspects of this unit and am glad that I have gained more experience with strengthening my skills. Now that we’re half way through the course I can’t wait to see how much my writing has improved by the time we’re finished. I am looking forward to what else is to come with this course!
Thanks for reading,

Meagan Rosenberg

Link to my Colleagues Peer Review of my Report Proposal: https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-99a-2019wa/2019/10/11/peer-review-of-formal-report-proposal-proposal-for-decreasing-needlestick-injuries-at-arden-park-dental/

Revised Report Proposal Doc: ENGL301 M.Rosenberg Proposal Revised