Creating the Web Folio was a good opportunity to look back through all the work I did over the term and assess everything I learned. I was actually surprised at how much content we produced. It did not feel like we did this much throughout the term, but putting it all in one place certainly put it in perspective.

Beyond the opportunity to look back at my work, it also got my brain thinking about the design and content of a future web folio I want to build. Since I am hoping to be an app and web developer, I want to create my own website eventually showcasing my experience and projects.

I have not started this yet as I am still not 100% sure about my career goals and target audience, and I am also waiting to build more of a software portfolio. I am still in the early days of my program and the projects I have to date are quite basic.

Next term I have to start looking into and applying to computer science co-op placements, so I will have to start working on this site soon. Much of the content I wrote today can be a good skeleton for the future site, although much will have to be changed for the context of the jobs I am applying to and the projects I want to showcase.

In fact, I already bought a domain name and hosting service. Now I just need to get started on actually building the site, which I hope to build from scratch as a project in itself, and the content.

Report Writing Process

The hardest part of writing the formal report was the scoping. My original idea for the report was too ambitious and tried to do too much. Throughout the term, I had to scale it down so as to not make it into a full research paper.

This presented both opportunities and challenges. On one hand, it made gathering sources and writing the first draft much more manageable. But on the other hand, it made it difficult to answer the questions I wanted answered without all the research I was initially planning on doing.

Initially, I wanted to use both the experience of the Rockfish Co-op members as well as social movement theory to give recommendations to the co-op on how they can increase community engagement. In the end, however, I opted to just speak to people in the community to find ways of achieving this.

This made me very reliant on stakeholder interviews as the main source for the report. While I was able to schedule some great interviews and hear from key people, it was hard to do this in the timeline given. Had I known from the start how little time I would have to conduct the interviews, I would have changed my methodology for the project.

Dr. Paterson suggested I perform a survey, and ideally I would do one. The main piece of information my report is missing is hearing from the wider co-op membership. However, due to the politics of small-town life, to avoid stepping on toes and setting unrealistic expectations for the report, I opted to not do the survey and instead do targeted interviews.

If this was a report actually commissioned by the Rockfish Co-op, I would ideally interview some more stakeholder and do a full survey of the membership with the backing of the co-op leadership. This is something I may actually recommend the co-op do in the future.

When it came to actually writing the draft report, it was helpful to already have drafted an outline and a progress report. This helped me organize the results of my research and spend more time writing once the interviews were over.

Due to the timing of the draft, at the end of the season when other projects are also due, I was not able to put the amount of time and energy into it as I had hoped. The end result of the draft is far from where I wanted it to be.

But it is certainly a good start to get feedback on and be able to improve on for the final draft.

Peer Review Process

This peer review felt like the culmination of much of what we have learned throughout the term. Given the length of the report and all we have learned, this was the most I spent working on a peer review to date.

It gave me an opportunity to apply much of what I learned through the textbook and the other course materials. I was able to more systematically identify strengths and areas for improvement in my peer’s report. I am also finding that avoiding imperative verbs and applying You-Attitude is coming more natural to me now.

In the past I have had to do a lot of editing for co-workers and these learnings will certainly come in handy in the future.

engl301-formal-report-draft

I first created a LinkedIn profile sometime around 2012. But since then I have not given it much attention. In the industry I have been working in for the past 8 years, LinkedIn is not used much. Most of my colleagues did not use LinkedIn and all of my jobs were offered through personal connections. I would only log in occasionally and update some things, but never gave it much thought. 

At some point in 2019, I finally decided to delete it. At the time, I felt that the outdated profile hurt me more during job applications than it helped as it was so outdated. 

But now that I am back in school to switch my career into the tech world, LinkedIn is more relevant for me than ever before. When I started school I knew I would have to reopen my profile and actually put thought into it, so I was happy to see it was a part of this class. 

Going through the process of creating a new profile from scratch gave me the opportunity to reflect back on my career and look at my goals for the coming years. While the profile is still far from complete, this process has given me a good opportunity to reevaluate where I am in my career and think about how I will promote myself in my new career path. 

I am holding off on sending invites for people to join my network until I’ve had the chance to finish some courses and build up a tech portfolio. But what I have now gives me a good base to start expanding my online professional network once I am ready to start looking for work. 

Writing the report proposal and outline has also been a good opportunity to ground myself in some basics. I did my first degree in political science, so I am no stranger to the writing process.

But after years of being out of school, I have become lazy when it comes to the writing process. When I write professional reports now, I find I focus less and less on the structural outline of my writing, and more on just getting it done. 

Being able to take the time to go through each step of the process, from thinking through a proposal to writing an outline, is a good way to ground myself in the writing process once again. It’s a process that is easy to ignore, but this is reflected in the final product. 

The peer review process has been an opportunity for me to ask why something works and doesn’t work. When reviewing someone else’s work, it’s not enough to say “this doesn’t sound right”, or “this is wrong.” The peer review process forces me to ask why something may not sound right or how it could be improved. 

During this process I spent just as much time researching grammar and syntax structure as I did on actually reviewing the document, to make sure I know why something is not reading properly or how it can be improved.

The process also gives good insight into how others use writing techniques to get their message across. The way others structure and write ideas is different from what I am used to and this can provide insight for future writings. 

Getting my work reviewed also helped me think through the scope of my report proposal. The original scope of my proposal was quite ambitious. The feedback I received from Dr. Paterson and from Mitchell helped me reexamine what I should be focusing on and how I can narrow the scope of the project. 

Attached is a copy of my revised report proposal. My report was reviewed by Mitchell Prost and can be found at https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-99a-2020wa/2020/10/21/peer-review-of-rodrigo-samayoas-research-proposal/

ENGL310 Rodrigo Samayoa Report Proposal

Learning to write a well-formed non-technical definition was very helpful. In the past, I have had to define complicated policy terms or ideas to a lay audience as part of previous jobs, but I never looked at formal strategies to do this. 

Being able to see the formal strategies for defining terms and the different components that can go into a definition was helpful to more systematically create one. 

This assignment’s requirement to use four different strategies for defining our term helped me go through the different ways I can use to define a term. When I first started writing, I was writing down what I knew of the term I chose, Theory of Change. But as I went back through the course materials and thought about the different strategies for defining, I was able to fill in gaps left by my initial attempt at defining the term. 

That said, I did struggle at keeping the definition short when including all four definition strategies. When defining terms in the future outside of class, it will be helpful to write the definition using different strategies and then choose the strategies that work best for my particular purpose. For this assignment, I felt I was adding unnecessary or repetitive information in the hopes of completing the assignment’s requirements. 

Getting my definition reviewed by another person was also helpful in two ways. First, and the more obvious way, was in getting another person to look through my definition with a fresh pair of eyes to look for grammar mistakes and improvements to my structure. Having that extra pair of eyes helped identify some flaws I had not seen when writing my definition. 

More specifically, I appreciated how Evan pointed out how my sections were blending into each other. When writing, it can be easy to forget that some readers skip from section to section, so it is important for each section to be self-contained. 

The second way this review process was helpful was in forcing me to sit on the definition for a few days and get back to it with a new perspective. I was able to catch other flaws in my definition and make improvements that were identified by the peer reviewer and myself. 

When it came to reviewing someone else’s definition, that also helped me revisit the definition strategies and review the formal writing tips I read about in the textbook. I was able to refer back to the textbook and Dr. Paterson’s blog to see how Mitchell could improve his definition. 

I have done peer reviews in the past, but the difference this time is that I was able to do it more systematically by having the textbook and the blog as resources. 

Both the definition and the peer review process will surely come in handy in the future. 

Evan’s peer review of my definition can be found here.

My revised definition is here – Eng301 Rodrigo Samayoa definitions

And my review of Mitchell Prost’s definition is here.

Hi team, attached is my definitions assignment. I have decided to define the term ‘theory of change’, which is commonly used in non-profit and social change circles.

Hope you learn from it!

Eng301 Rodrigo Samayoa definitions

To: Amol Chahal
From: Rodrigo Samayoa

Subject: Partnering up for the technical writing team

Dear Amol,

I am writing to you to ask that you join me in forming a technical writing team for ENGL 301.

I read through your application letter and was impressed by your experience. I believe that having someone with your experience in the sciences and in business can complement my own writing experience in the field of political advocacy.

I also noticed we are both in the second degree computer science program. I think that throughout the term we can explore together how the learnings of the technical writing course can be applied to our degrees in computer science.

I have attached my own application letter to this email so you can learn more about my background.

I should also note I have already teamed up with Amina Mountaqim-Barrette. You can learn more about her at her blog page here – https://blogs.ubc.ca/aminamb/

I look forward to hearing from you.

All the best,
Rodrigo Samayoa

Eng301 Rodrigo Samayoa Application Letter

From: Rodrigo Samayoa
To: Mitchell Prost

Subject: ENGL 301 Professional Writing Team Invitation

Hi Michael,

Thank you for reaching out and offering a position in your team. I would be more than happy to join your writing team this term if there’s still a position available.

I read through your application letter and I am impressed by your experience. I am particularly excited by your science background, which I think can complement my arts background very well. I am sure I have a lot to learn from your experience writing in the field of science.

I am also pleased to see you are a very organized person, which is a great quality to have in a team member.

I look forward to us working together throughout the term.

All the best,
Rodrigo Samayoa

To: Amina-Fatima Moustaqim-Barrette
From: Rodrigo Samayoa

Subject: Forming a technical writing team

Dear Amina,

I am emailing you to ask if you would like to form a writing team for ENGL 301 with me.

I am impressed by your academic and professional experienc, especially considering it is in science. As someone who graduated with an arts degree and has been working in the field of political advocacy for many years, I feel that partnering someone with a STEM background would very much complement my own writing experience.

I am particularly excited by your previous work writing epidemiological analysis to be read by the public and policy makers. I believe I have lots to learn from this experience.

We also seem to have some common experience working in the non-profit sector, which tells me we may have some common interests.

I have attached a copy of my own application letter so you can review my interests and qualifications. You can also find my blog at the following URL: https://blogs.ubc.ca/rodrigosf/

Sincerely,
Rodrigo Samayoa

Eng301 Rodrigo Samayoa Application Letter

September 18, 2020

To: Dr. Erika Paterson
From: Rodrigo Samayoa

Subject: Memo -Technical Writing Team Application
Attachment: Eng301 Rodrigo Samayoa Application Letter

Professor Paterson,

Please find attached a copy of my application letter to join a writing team in the ENGL301 Technical Writing course.

My letter briefly summarizes my desire to join a technical writing team as well as the experience I can bring to the table when joining a team. The letter lists the follow:

• My professional experience working in the field of grassroots political advocacy,
• The type of digital and print communications I have experience writing, including mass email campaigns, social media, blog, and op-eds,
• My interest in web development, which is what brought me back to study at the UBC BCS program.

As a next step, I intend on reading the application letters from my peers to find teammates that would complement my own writing experience and style.

Please take a look at my application letter and feel free to send any feedback you man have.

Sincerely,
Rodrigo Samayoa

ENGL301 Students
UBC English Language & Literatures
BuTo 397-1873 East Mall
Vancouver, BC
Canada V6T 1Z1

Re: Technical Writing Team Application

Dear ENGL301 Classmates,

Please accept this letter to express my interest in joining your Technical Writing Team. I hope to join a team of peers of diverse backgrounds with whom I can collaborate and learn throughout this term.

I have over eight years of experience working professionally in the field of political advocacy as a campaigner with organizations like Leadnow, the BC Government and Services Employees Union, and OpenMedia. My main role in these organizations was to support grassroots political lobbying campaigns through the use of digital communications like email, SMS and social media.

Through this work I became proficient at writing political action appeals and fundraisers to email lists of up to 500,000 people, online blogs, op-eds in publications like the Vancouver Sun and Toronto Star, and posts for social media pages of up to 90,000 followers.

Aside from writing and political strategy, I also have a personal and professional interest in web development. It is the reason why I decided to come back to UBC to complete the Bachelor in Computer Science (BCS) second degree program. My hope is to combine my BA in Political Science, my professional political communications background, and my new degree in computer science to build software for non-profits and political parties.

I hope you will consider my application to join your team. I am excited to learn and collaborate with people with different backgrounds who can help enrich my own writing experience. I also believe that my professional and educational experience can add great value to your team.

Feel free to reach out to me at your convenience over email at rsamayoa@alumni.ubc.ca. I look forward to hearing back from you.

Sincerely,
J. Rodrigo Samayoa
BA Political Science
rsamayoa@alumni.ubc.ca

Eng301 Rodrigo Samayoa Application Letter