My First Technical Writing Assignment – Three Definitions
While constructing my three definitions, I first read and looked over all the examples and details provided by the textbook and then I reflected on my experience as a high school science tutor and thought about how I would explain the term polyploidy to one of my students. Since we were instructed to make three definitions of varying complexity, I really got to think about how each of the different definition types were good for different situations and for people with different amounts of science knowledge. Furthermore, it helped me think what information was really necessary to convey the meaning to a non-techincal audience. However, I also found it quite difficult when determining if a word I used could be too complicated and be categorized as jargon.
Peer Review of my Teammate’s Definition
I really enjoyed the peer review process. Because my partner was from a different discipline than I am, it really tested the effectiveness of my definitions to see if a person who has little science knowledge could understand what I was trying to explain. On the same note, my lack of real-estate knowledge also attested to the validity of my partner’s definitions as I was able to grasp what “bridge-financing” was after reading his work. When I was peer-reviewing, I thought about the criteria and objectives for the assignment. I considered the audience specified by my partner, and thought if anyone from that category could understand the definition.
After reviewing someone else’s work and getting feedback, I’ve learnt that me and my partner are visual learners and prefer having visual representations over text. I also appreciate that my partner was able to give feedback that addressed the concern I had over what constituted as jargon in my definitions. I considered all the suggestions my partner made and implemented them throughout my definitions.