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!