Looking Back at this Semester

Taking English 301 at UBC proved to be a very worthwhile experience for me. I was skeptical upon enrolling because as a science major I have not spent a lot of time writing for academic purposes. Nevertheless, my worries were quelled early on in the semester. I will leave English 301 with a set of invaluable skills that will serve me as I pursue my future education and career goals. Thanks Dr. Paterson!

At the beginning of the semester, I noted in my Letter of Application that I am often too verbose in my writing. This verbosity led to me producing run-on sentences and failing to articulate my ideas. I realized after reading the peer review of my Definition Assignment that this deficiency in my writing had become a habit. It was then clear to me that I would have to be extremely mindful of this while submitting assignments for English 301. Now that the semester has concluded, I think it is safe to say that I have significantly improved this aspect of my writing. The peer reviews that I received as the semester moved along no longer brought up my overly verbose ways. I also noted in my unit reflections that I have been able to mostly rid my writing of this bad habit. I hope that my writing from here on out reflects this improvement without taking away from my strengths (formulating a powerful argument, expansive vocabulary).

To me, the structure of English 301 was as follows: Read about and learn technical writing skills and then apply them to assignments that mimic real life. I am extremely pleased with how this course was laid out. Like most others, I enrolled in this class to improve my technical writing skills but getting to deploy these skills in the form of memos, emails, reflections, peer reviews and a formal report was a great surprise. These work-environment assignments have given me the confidence to produce such works if needed in career and professional school settings.

The peer review process of English 301 was truly unique. Being a science major, I hear a lot about peer reviewing and its importance but I have never gotten to experience it for myself. Even the few writing based classes I have taken never really included it in their curriculum. Analyzing the work of my peers has opened my eyes to many effective yet different writing styles. By making notes of the powerful writing that I reviewed, I was able to improve my own writing greatly. I believe that we naturally stick to a style of writing that is natural to us, however, being exposed to novel styles of writing can allow us to apply different techniques to different situations as is best suited. Furthermore, performing peer reviews has allowed me to better identify common errors in university level writing. Personally, I feel that I had become somewhat desensitized to the errors in my writing. Reviewing my peers assignments by following the checklists of Dr. Paterson caused me to see such common errors and realize that I was actually making them in my own assignments (before I submitted them). Why I didn’t notice these common errors such as beginning sentences with “it”, improperly using commas and producing run-on sentences when editing my own work I do not know.

Despite not having any midterms or exams, English 301 was definitely not an easy course. As a science major, this material as well as WordPress was completely new to me. This course was fast paced and it held me accountable as assignments were usually do weekly. There was no room for “cramming” in English 301. I believe that one of my strengths as a student is my ability to be diligent when it comes to keeping up with course material. English 301 enforced this and also sparked me to employ this mentality in my other courses. Attention to detail is something that I value and to my pleasure, it was rewarded in English 301. I hope that my strengths of staying on top of things and paying attention to detail and requirements will serve me well as I attempt to achieve my goal of gaining acceptance to medical school.

Overall, I am extremely happy that I chose to take English 301 this semester. It has fostered in me skills that I would never have learned otherwise. Not only that, but English 301 has prepared me for life after my undergrad in the form of a professional resume, cover letter, reference requests and a Web Folio! I am very grateful for the way Dr. Paterson has taught this class and for the support and reviews of my classmates. Thanks everyone!

Creating a Web Folio

After completing an assignment as dense as the formal report, putting together a Web Folio was a nice way to end our semester of English 301. I consider my Web Folio a comprehensive showcase of how my technical writing skills have evolved during our class. At the same time, my Web folio highlights my academic accomplishments, extracurricular interests and career goals. Establishing a professional presence online is especially important today and I believe that my Web Folio has helped me achieve this.

I chose to use my existing English 301 site to build my Web Folio. I felt that this was the right choice for me because I am not very savvy with technology. This way, I can focus my efforts on the content and presentation of my Web Folio rather than on learning a new web application. Furthermore, having my English 301/career work on one site (rather than on a web folio and a blog) will make it more convenient when I want to present my Web Folio to a potential employee or university. I also decided to change the overall theme of my Web Folio site. Originally, I gave my class site a colorful and creative look, however, I changed to a cleaner black and white theme for my Web Folio. I believe that this gives my Web Folio a more professional look.

The construction of the application package and its contents; resume, cover letter and reference requests, was by far the most important part of English 301 for me. Personally, I have struggled to find proper resume and cover letter writing techniques on the internet so I was very pleased that we were able to learn these through an assignment. It is a relief that I will have a finely tuned application package ready for the job search after graduation this spring. Learning how to write a proper reference request letter will surely be valuable to me in the future as well. For myself and anyone else applying to professional schools, reference letters are extremely important. Identifying the proper tone and format are two skills that we have learned in English 301 that lend themselves to producing an effective reference request letter.

Piecing together a Best Works page was a nostalgic and purposeful experience. Although some of my best works were from earlier in the semester, it is easy to see the improvement in my technical writing skills from the beginning to the end of the semester and this is a good feeling. The assignments chosen for my Best Works page range from unique assignments designed to practice a particular skill to in depth reviews of my peers work. Furthermore, having a Best Works page at hand is valuable as a variety of jobs require a writing sample as part of the application to them.

Overall, designing a Web Folio was a very rewarding experience. The Web Folio nicely concluded what was a wonderful semester. It has left us with a valuable tool to use as we pursue our future career and academic goals. Lastly, thank you for reading my reflections this semester. I hope they were as valuable to you as they were for me. Please contact me at nickbell23@hotmail.com if you have questions about any of my work in English 301. Cheers!

Drafting and Reviewing Formal Reports

As we have progressed through the semester, our English 301 course work has begun to focus on our formal reports. Creating a formal report draft has been a very unique and extensive experience. I have never had to focus my writing on an issue outside of the classroom like I have in writing my formal report draft. The act of collecting primary and secondary data and then presenting it using professional writing techniques was a very challenging but valuable experience. I believe that this skill will help all English 301 students throughout their education as well as in life outside of school.

The research required for our formal report draft consisted of primary and secondary data. A survey of Coast Mental Health patients made up my primary data. Being that this was my first time conducting an in person survey, I was quite nervous doing it. I can now say that it taught me a lot in terms of speaking professionally, maintaining boundaries, making those surveyed feel comfortable and thoroughly explaining my purpose in front of others. Furthermore, I had to learn to enter the results of my survey into a program called Survey Monkey in order to produce Figure 1 and 2 in my report. I can see myself using this program to display data in graph form for future reports. My secondary data was gathered from various peer reviewed journals and articles. I focused on finding information that supported the results of my survey and proved the benefits of my intended purpose. Although I’ve had to accumulate information this way for other classes, this was a good lesson on the most effective way to go about finding secondary data. I had to relearn how to best utilize my search terms, how to find only the most prominent works and how to cite my findings in MLA style.

I chose to organize my report based off of the core elements that Dr. Paterson suggested we include. The sections of my report include a title page, table of contents, introduction, body, conclusion and recommendations. Doing a formal report outline as a previous assignment helped me determine how to divide my material among the sections of my report draft The assignments and peer reviews that we have completed this semester have taught me the importance of visible, bold headings and subheadings. I made sure to implement my headings and subheadings in this way so that it is easier for the reader to follow the various sections of my report.

The writing of my formal report served as a great way to incorporate the many techniques we have learned during this semester. In my past writing/English classes, the focus was often on being descriptive and providing thorough explanations but producing a formal report was different. The formal report draft was a great lesson in conveying a point in the most concise manner possible. This was especially difficult for me as being overly verbose is one of the weaknesses in my writing. A major part of learning to write with brevity involves avoiding writing in a passive voice. I noticed that helped drastically to cut down on unnecessary words Nevertheless, I have learned that being concise and direct is very effective in professional writing and as our Instructor’s Blog says, we should “consider our readers to be very busy people”. Creating a formal report draft has also been a tutorial on writing from an objective point of view. From early on we are taught to write subjectively and express our opinion, however, writing objectively seems more applicable to our professional futures. The objective manner that we wrote our formal report draft in provides our reader with an educated view point on our topic rather than trying to convince the reader to agree with us. One aspect of writing my formal report that I found particularly challenging was writing with a “You” attitude when necessary. I understand that a “You” attitude is necessary in our report since we are writing to cater to a specific individual and I will definitely try and improve on this when finalizing my report. I will also need to review my formal report draft and add phrases such as “As you are aware” when presenting information that my intended reader will know.

Performing a review of a classmates formal report draft was a very helpful exercise. By pretending that the report was being written for me, I was able to suggest revisions where a “You” attitude was not used. The report that I reviewed was fairly comprehensive. I used the core elements listed on the “Instructors Blog” to make sure that all elements were included and provided reminders when I found one that wasn’t. The peer reviews that we have submitted in the past provided a rough template for me to use for this review, however, I consulted the “Instructors Blog” to make sure that I touched on what wasn’t needed in past reviews. I now feel that I have a valid template to use when conducting peer reviews of formal reports in the future. The rest of my peer review mainly consisted of suggesting areas where rewording of a sentence could prove beneficial and where commas were used improperly. These were just minor revisions that I believe will make the report more pleasant to read. Grammar and punctuation errors have become easier to identify as my writing/reviewing skills have improved over the semester. Performing a peer review of a formal report draft will definitely help me in writing my own finalized report and I hope it will help my peer as well.

Overall, unit three of English 301 was the most challenging unit to date. Incorporating the various skills we have learned so far into a formal report draft was quite difficult, however, I know that this assignment will be one that helps us in our professional and educational futures. I look forward to finalizing my report in the coming weeks and also reading the finalized reports of my classmates. I am proud to say that my peer review process has improved each time I have done a review and I hope it has proven increasingly helpful to my peers. Anyways, on to unit 4 we go. Thank you for reading!

LinkedIn Profiles and a Formal Report Proposal

Unit 2 of English 301 was a very valuable experience as we created a LinkedIn profile and started producing our formal reports. Making a LinkedIn profile was very interesting to me as I have not made one before. I now realize how important it is to professional networking. A powerful LinkedIn profile requires attention to detail and the “10 Best LinkedIn Practices” memo that we were required to do helped me to better market myself to potential employers and colleagues. I now know which sections of a LinkedIn profile are the most important to recruiters, how to best display my skills/experiences and how to portray myself in a friendly yet personable manner. The vast amount of potential employers, recruiters and professionals on LinkedIn is amazing to me and as a student whom will graduate in December, I am very grateful that I am now apart of it.

Developing a formal report has been a challenging task. Throughout most undergraduate degrees, students are not required to write in such a professional manner. That being said, the writing of a formal report seems like something that will be a worthwhile experience for all students who are about to enter the workforce. I had a tough time thinking of a topic for my formal report. I noticed that most of my classmates chose a topic involving their place of work but since I am currently unemployed, I decided to choose a topic related to all UBC students. My original topic was “Determining the Feasibility of Increasing the Nutritional Information Available from Food Vendors at UBC”, however, Dr. Paterson believed that this was a problem that students have the ability to solve by themselves. After review, I completely agree. I then decided to focus my formal report on a problem that I have witnessed during my time as a volunteer at the Coast Mental Health Center ; “Improving the Social Lives of Patients at Coast Mental Health Center”. Being required to create an outline on this matter really helped me to determine if this was something worth writing a formal report on. It was originally difficult to document the steps of my formal report so far in advance but now I believe that this will only help as I work to complete it. I have concluded that “Improving the Social Lives of Patients at Coast Mental Health Center” is a strong formal report topic and I look forward to pursuing it. Nevertheless, I do question my ability to gather the data that I require by the deadline I set. Not everyone at Coast Mental Health is diligent in responding to emails. I also have concerns about being able to produce a 12-15 page report on “Improving the Social Lives of Patients at Coast Mental Health Center” as this just seems like a lot for a report of our scope.

I find that as we continue to conduct peer reviews, I learn more and more about the common mistakes that writers at the undergraduate level make and how to identify them. This ability stems from the peer reviews that I have received as well as the ones I have completed. While reviewing my partners formal report proposal, I was able to identify that not all of the problems stated were accompanied by a proposed solution. These type of oversight errors along with standard grammatical errors are the types of mistakes that seem to be easier to identify by peers. I have also learned through the peer reviews that I have conducted that I am able to spot grammatical/punctuation errors with ease. I hope this is of help to my classmates. The peer reviews that I have received have really helped hone in on the major flaws in my writing. I know that I am often too verbose in my writing and I also tend to not explain certain things that I am familiar with that I cant expect my audience to be familiar with. These issues are regularly identified in the peer reviews I receive and it serves as a great reminder of what aspects of my writing I need to improve on.

Overall, unit two has been a very busy unit. I am pleased that we have been able to gain experience creating LinkedIn profiles and writing formal reports because these are skills that will be applicable in the near future. I hope that as our class continues to write and review that we will improve our professional writing skills as well as improve the feedback we provide to our peers. Thank you for reading!

Formal Report Proposal Nick Bell

Peer Review of Nick Bell’s Formal Report Proposal

Reflecting on Writing and Reviewing a Definition Assignment

The English 301 definition assignment was a great lesson in the various types of definitions used in technical writing. It taught me how choosing a type of definition is very context sensitive and the level of detail and language used must be adjusted depending on the audience.

I chose to do my definition assignment on the “synapse”. I am a General Science student with a focus on the Life Sciences so I thought this would be a fitting definition. Also, the synapse seems to come up in a lot of my classes so I believe that it is important enough for everyone to become at least slightly educated on it. It is involved in all of our senses and although it seems complicated, it works in a fairly logical way. I chose to expand on what the synapse does, what it is composed of, how it works and where it is located. Doing this assignment also helped to improve my knowledge of a subject that is vital to my degree.

As is noted in my Letter of Application, a weakness in my writing is that I am often too verbose. It became evident to me after reading the peer review of my definition assignment that this was the case once again. My definition assignment contained terms that were beyond the scope of the audience and paragraphs that were verbose to the point that it took away from my intended message. To fix this, I made sure to go back and better define any scientific jargon that I had used. I also edited the “How does a synapse work?” section to make it more concise and pleasant to read. I believe that these changes make my definitions better suited to the intended audience.

The peer review segment of the definition assignment was a very valuable exercise. Examining a fellow students writing allows you to apply any edits/revisions that you notice to future writing of your own. It was also great practice in applying criticism in a polite yet effective manner. The assignment that I peer reviewed elaborated on a definition that I was only superficially familiar with. This was helpful because it allowed me to suggest clarification on certain terms. Having little knowledge of the term also let me suggest elaboration on certain parts of the expanded definition which I believe will provide a better understanding for uneducated readers. Lastly, the peer review process helps identify grammatical and punctuation errors with more scrutiny. I noticed that when reviewing a peers work that these types of errors became more clear. This allowed me to go back to my own definition assignment and critique it with higher standards.

Overall, the definition and peer review assignment worked in tandem to reinforce what I need to improve about my writing. I hope by engaging in more peer reviews as the semester goes on that I can continue to improve my technical and professional writing. Thank you for reading.

Here is my edited definition assignment:

Edited Definition Assignment

Here is my peer’s review of my assignment:

Peer Review of Nick Bell’s Definition Assignment

Letter of Application for a Professional Writing Team

English 301

UBC

Vancouver, BC

Dear fellow students:

Please consider my application for a spot on your professional writing team for the duration of the semester. I will graduate from the University of British Columbia with a Bachelor of Science degree in General Science between May 25-June 1. I plan to be a physician in the future so I am currently engaged in volunteer activities and maintaining as high a GPA as I can. I volunteer weekly at the Coast Mental Health Center by spending time with a man named Brendan and I recently just finished a volunteer job with the BC Heart and Stroke Foundation.  I also have spent many years volunteering with local minor hockey teams in Nanaimo, BC.

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