Strengths and Weaknesses

Reflecting back on my first post, I believe I have accomplished all the objectives I had laid out for myself at the beginning of the course.  Coming out of the course, I have become more confident in writing professional correspondence. I now know the importance of utilizing you-attitude in writing emails. The growth I am most proud of is learning how to properly write a cover letter. Prior to this course, I was always unsure of how to word cover letters professionally and what to include in a cover letter. I was worried that the cover letter I wrote would sound unprofessional or contain too much flattery. After this course, my confidence in writing cover letters has greatly improved.

Something I still consider a weakness of mine is my LinkedIn profile. I did not have a LinkedIn profile prior to this course and was eager to learn how to make an outstanding profile. It was a great experience getting to learn from my peers who have had LinkedIn profiles for a while and know the ins and outs of the website. However, I just have not had the chance to expand my profile to the extent that I wish to. In the future, I plan on continuing to work on improving my LinkedIn profile by using all the tips I’ve learned from my peers and expanding my connections.

Supporting my Future Career 

I am confident that the skills I have learned throughout this term will benefit me when applying for jobs and throughout my career. My cover letter writing skills have improved and I am now more prepared to network with my LinkedIn profile and WebFolio. Generally speaking, every job requires one to be a good communicator and this course has allowed me to further hone my skills. The peer review and the email memorandum writing practice I have had throughout the term will definitely transfer well to writing code reviews and corresponding to coworkers at my future career.

For one of the final aspects to ENGL 301, students were asked to construct a WebFolio that showcased all the work they’ve completed throughout the term.

Creating my WebFolio was an interesting experience. I had never made a website dedicated to myself and my work before. In biology, it was not very common for someone to have a website dedicated to their work, but I can see the value of having a WebFolio now after having constructed one for myself. I think this would be something useful to have on a resume so that future employers could know more about your personality and the work you’ve done to see if you’re a good fit for the position. Particularly, now that I’m in computer science, I think having the ability to showcase the work or programs you’re able to produce is paramount to getting the job.

The process of creating the WebFolio was somewhat a smooth transition from the technical writing blog we had created for earlier assignments in ENGL 301. I had used WordPress before in other classes to power sites, but this was the first time I had this much interaction with the interface.  Learning how to create pages and upload different types of media to the website was an enjoyable learning experience for me. Having completed this assignment, I feel much more comfortable constructing a computer science WebFolio in the future.

Researching and Writing my First Formal Report

While I was writing the first iteration of my formal report, the process and structure of a formal report reminded me a lot of writing a lab report. However, I have never experienced writing on a topic such as the one I picked. I found the process of coming up with your own idea refreshing because topics and research methods are usually assigned to you in science courses. Getting the opportunity to create and hand out my own survey was also a cool experience for me as I never knew there were proper ways to word survey questions.

When organizing and writing the report draft, I drew a lot from how I write lab reports as I noticed a lot of similarities between formal reports and lab reports. For example, section names and their contents were largely identical, the use of figures and captions, and the importance of passive voice.  These similarities allowed me to have a solid idea of what a good formal report consists of and eased my writing process immensely, aside from using MLA citations instead of APA citations.

Peer Reviewing my Teammate’s Formal Report

Peer reviewing my teammate’s formal report was a fun process. Conservation and sustainability are things I have great interest in, so it made Barton’s formal report a very interesting read. It is also very helpful to look at my peer’s approach to writing a formal report and seeing what I can learn from their writing. The feedback I receive from peers in this class are always constructive. I always look forward to and appreciate any advice my peers have to improve my work before handing in the final submission, so I have greatly enjoyed the peer review process in this class.

301 Phoebe Wu Formal Report Draft

EDIT: You can now read my completed formal report  here

Creating a LinkedIn Profile

            Creating a LinkedIn profile was a new experience for me. Prior to this course, I had heard about people using LinkedIn to connect with people professionally, but I had never thought to create my own profile. I am glad that I was allowed to create my first iteration of my LinkedIn profile through this course because I was able to get feedback from my peers as they seem to be more well-versed in LinkedIn than I am.

            After creating my profile, I made connections with many of my old classmates and co-workers. I anticipate growing my profile even more in the future.

EDIT: Feel free to view and connect with me on LinkedIn here

Formal Report

Initially I found coming up with a formal report topic to be difficult. All the topics posted seemed to require a lot of scouting at public places which is now difficult due to the pandemic. However, once I thought more closely about problems within my own community, I was able to come up with a topic that I look forward to investigating more about. Reflecting back to when I first came up with this topic, I am surprised as to how small tweaks I have made to reach the proposal and research methods I have now.

From my peer review of my teammate’s proposal, I learnt the importance of having scope in your report as well as a target audience when doing any piece of technical writing. This reminds me of our first definitions assignment and proves why defining your audience is so important. From the peer review process, I have learnt that my writing lacks in clarity and expression. I am consistently surprised by what I read in my colleague’s work because we all come from different majors. From my biology classes, I am used to writing more plainly for lab reports. Reading my peer’s writing, has made me recognize that I need to improve my expression of ideas.

301 Phoebe Wu Formal Report Proposal – Revised report proposal

Barton’s Peer Review

EDIT: You can now read my completed formal report here

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.

Definitions Assignment Revised

ENGL-301- Nicholas’ Polyploidy Definitions Peer Review

Memorandum

To: Dr. Erika Paterson, ENGL 301 99A Instructor

From: Phoebe Wu, ENGL 301 99A Student

Date: September 18, 2020

Subject: Application Letter Submission

As a part of the ENGL 301 curriculum, each student is required to submit an application letter in order to be considered for a spot in a professional writing team. Attached to this memo please find my application letter.

The attached application letter highlights:

• My academic and professional achievements and experiences
• A description of my writing skills, work habits, and learning philosophy
• An inclination to be considered for a spot in a professional writing team

Please feel free to contact me if you require any additional information. I look forward to hearing from you!

Enclosure: 301 Phoebe Wu Application Letter

408 West 39^th Avenue

Vancouver, BC, V5Y 2P7

ENGL 301 99A – Technical Writing
University of British Columbia
2329 West Mall
Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z4

September 18, 2020

Dear fellow ENGL 301 99A students:

Please consider my application to be a member of your professional writing team for the term, as posted on the ENGL 301 Technical Writing Blog. I have a Bachelor of Science in Biology from UBC and will graduate UBC in May 2022 with a Bachelor of Computer Science.

As a student at UBC for over five years, I have attended many lectures and worked on many group assignments. Specifically, as a past biology student, I know the importance of communicating precise and to the point information both through words and figures. I have also led and cooperatively written many group papers and presentations for laboratory classes. I have also had much practice peer-reviewing many of my colleague’s papers over the years as well as technically communicating with supervisors, TAs and professors. With my experience over the years, I have garnered the skills to work with all sorts of people and to be a productive and active team member.

Furthermore, as a high-school science and English tutor, I am well-versed in reading many documents at once while at the same time paying attention to minute details and errors. This experience has also given me lots of practice at giving sufficient feedback that is not only constructive, but also specific.

As a dedicated student, I acknowledge that every student has a tightly packed schedule. My experience as a tutor and student has prepared me to work efficiently by not procrastinating and supplying feedback on a timely basis as well as answer any questions my colleagues might pose.

If you are looking for a reliable and consistent person to be a part of your professional writing team, please don’t hesitate to email me at phoebe.aqwu@gmail.com.

Sincerely,

Phoebe Wu

301 Phoebe Wu Application Letter