Overall

By taking the ENGL 301 class,  I learned how to write in business, professional and technical contexts. Meanwhile, I also find much weakness that I need to improve in the future.

Strength and Things I learned

First, I am familiar with designing job-oriented website (LinkedIn and Web folio) which helps me in career development and also master more strategies and techniques for building job-search material such as resumes, cover letter, and request for reference letters. Second, I learned how to write three different types of definition and workplace memo and letter. It includes writing the parts, formats, and design features of workplace memo and letters. Third, I learned how to work collaboratively with a team and how to peer review the assignments of my teammates. During this peer review process, I reflected on my writing and developed self-editing skills.  Finally, I studied the process of writing the formal report, including writing proposal, outline, progress report and final formal report. I also learned how to design and implement a survey and search source online.

Weakness

During this class, I found much weakness in my writing ability. The most important issue is grammar. From the review from my instructor and teammates, they all pointed out that there is more or less grammar issues in every assignment. I realized I lack much fundamental grammar knowledge (e.g., usage of “a” and “the” and tense consistency)  which I should review them in the future. The next big weakness is sentence structure and word choice when I write the assignments, I found that my sentence structure is simple and monotonous. Most of the structure I use is subject-predicate structure while my teammates know how to vary the sentence structure and make their article more fluent and interesting. The word choice is also a challenge for me since my vocabulary is limited. I would continue to read more books and articles in the future and learned their sentence structure and word choice under different situations and environments.

Career Development

This course helped me a lot regarding my career development in the future. First of all, strategies and techniques for building job-search material such as resumes, cover letter and request for reference letter increase my opportunities to find my dream job. Second, learning writing three different types of definition and workplace memo enhances technical communication in the job environment. Third, working collaboratively with a team develops my team sprite during the work. Last, learning writing the formal report strengthens my research ability which is a useful skill for many employers.

Conclusion

I will bring what I learned in this course to my career (Coop and full time) in the future, and I will try my best correct my defects and shortcoming. 

This is my first time when I am creating my web folio online. It is an interesting and valuable experience for me to create and modify my web folio and I learned a lot during this process.

The first important thing I learned is writing for the web environment, which depends on how people read web pages. Because the readers are busy and they want the information quickly, the paragraphs must be short, and the content should be worthwhile and valuable to readers. Also, I need to write in a factual and neutral tone to increase the credibility and authority of the web folio.

The next thing I learned is designing web pages. Research shows that readers of web page employ the “F-shaped” reading pattern to skim quickly. Because of this, I need to use the top paragraphs or sections for the most important information or visuals. Besides, the font style and size should keep consistent and avoid mixing and matching typefaces randomly. Finally, use visuals effectively, the writer should balance text with visuals to make the content more readable.

The third thing I learned is the elements of a web folio which includes homepage, blog page, and any other necessary pages. The home page should welcome your readers and tell the reader’s the purpose of the web folio and any other important information. The blog page is where you can post blogs, and the readers view them chronologically. The menu should contain the hyperlink to provide access to the necessary pages for readers.

Reflection on researching the formal report:

For the first time, I learned how to create and design survey questions, including the survey introduction. Many things need to be considered for a good survey. First, personal questions should be avoided since privacy is concerned with ethics and legality. Second, always avoid the negative when writing survey questions. We should stress positive outcomes rather than negative situations for professional writing (such as formal report, proposal and survey questions) because readers generally conflict with negative sentences. Three, avoid leading questions due to the fact that the survey should always stay neutral.

Besides, conducting the survey is not an easy thing. At first, although I spread the survey to lots of people, only a few of them responded. I realized that some reward mechanism should be applied to encourage the joining to the survey. Thus, I decided people who finished the survey can enter the draw and win money. After that, the number of respondents increased a lot. Thus, obtaining primary data source require time, energy and financial investment.

Reflection on organizing and writing and formal report:

The proposal and outline did give me a big favor when organizing the formal report. Proposal provide the direction of agreement and thesis, while outline breaks the report into many connected subsections. Also, formal reports are almost written for decision makers such as government officials or corporate managers, so I should consider the readers and ask myself why this particular topic is useful for them. Another important thing I learned is that most reports can be divided into three main sections, introduction, body, and conclusion. The introduction provides background and engages the audience. The body section describes and explains my finding, and conclusion answers the questions that originally sparked the analysis. A strategy for organizing the report is to figure out these three main parts first and then add more points to corresponding sections.

Regarding writing the formal reports, I reviewed to write front matter precedes the report, such as title page, table of contents and list of figures. Also, I reviewed how to cite in text for MLA style and included a Works Cited list. However, the challenge for me to write the report is how to choose the precise words and vary sentence structures. I would expand vocabulary and practice using different kinds of sentence structure in the future.

Reflection on peer review teammates’ report:

From reviewing my partner’s report, there are many strong points from which I can learn in the future. The biggest thing is that Jones uses various sentence structure and advanced grammar.  For example, Jones wrote, “this research can only give us particular insight into what the applicant should do, as every year there is a different group of people, and with that the competitive nature changes as well.” Although this sentence is not very complex, it uses object clause induced by wh-words “what” and follows adverbial clause of cause induced by “as”.

Conclusion

Researching, organizing and drafting the first draft of the formal report gave me good practice to learn the process of writing the formal report, and from peer review, I also find many weaknesses. I will improve and revise the report in future.

Link to Formal Report First Draft

Reflection on the Process of Creating a LinkedIn Profile:

When I first created my LinkedIn profile, I realized the power of this online job platform. LinkedIn is indeed a powerful platform that connects employers with applicants all over the world, but being able to create a good profile that shows my strength and competitiveness is not an easy thing. There are many aspects I need to take account of such as profile picture, summary writing, and other important details. Also, a good LinkedIn profile cannot be finished in one time. I should check and update my information at a regular basis to keep my profile complete and latest.

Reflection on the Process of Brainstorming and Preparing Report Proposal and Outline:

Brainstorming and preparing report proposal and outline cost me a huge amount of time. I learned that creating and organizing the ideas are important writing ability and this ability needs practice and improvement.

For the proposal, choosing an appropriate topic is a priority to do, and this topic has a big impact on your rest work. The inappropriate topic may increase the difficulty of a formal report and make your readers dislike the report. Second, we need to ask the right questions in our proposal, which means the ethical and legal concerns should be considered.

For the outline, I learned that a hierarchical structure should be used for each level. Topic, subtopic, detail and other information should be labeled and indented properly. Besides, make clear who is your reader, not only the administration body but specific people. Explicit readers could help me guide my report and address them.

Reflection on Progress Report:

The progress report is a new thing to me and this is also my first time to write a progress report. In the previous, I wrote my report based only on the final due date and did not have any plan or schedule. I realized progress report could help me divide my report into many small sections and finish that one by one, which is a very good practice for me to write reports in the future.

Reflection on Peer Review Process:

One of the biggest point I learned during the process of peer review is using the subtitles to break the article into several sections. By doing this, your readers can have a clear structure and organization when they are reading your article. Subtitles or subtopics also navigate readers to get what they want. However, my partner exposure some problems that I need to avoid. For example, she confuses me about who her reader is.

Overall

During this unit, I learned how to create a LinkedIn profile and write a proposal, outline and progress report. I believe these skills would be beneficial to my career in the future.

301 Haotong Wang Revised Proposal

Hyperlink to my peer review for the proposal

During this definition writing and peer review process, I learned a lot about definition writing, peer review and self-editing. I chose the complex term “software engineering” because I think this is a technical word of my discipline and is not a too complex term for general people. However, after looking at my partner’s review, I realized that it is difficult to explain this term to those of people who are not familiar this word before. I used many technical terms such as engineering, interface, algorithm and so on to define “software engineering” but I forgot that these words are impossible for laymen to understand.

When I reviewed the definition writing of my partner, I learned that she could use many simple words to explain some complex things. In that way, people could easily understand what status is. Besides, she can write fluent sentences that provide clear connections and variety, which is another strong point I need to learn in my writing. For example, as she wrote “An individual’s status is not how they view themselves fitting into society but rather how other’s see them fitting into a group”, she uses two object clauses to in one sentence to clearly deliver the misunderstanding of status.

After considering my partner’s suggestions. First, I tried to use either some simple words to replace some technical words used in my definition or parenthetical definition to explain those complex terms. Especially I add a sentence definition to explain engineering to make it clear to all audience. Second, my partner thinks the history part did not make sense for her to understand the complex term. I agree with her suggestion and delete this part. I learned that we need to select the most appropriate strategies for expanded definition since not all strategies are helpful for audience to understand the complex term.

Here is the link to peer review: https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-technicalwriting-98a-2018/2018/06/04/peer-review-of-scotts-definition/

And the link to my definition:  301  Haotong Wang  definition

MEMORANDUM

To:          Erika Paterson, Instructor of ENGL301 class

From:      Haotong Wang, Student of ENGL301 class

Date:       May 24, 2018

Subject:  Summary of Application Letter

I am writing this memo to inform professor Erika Paterson that I have posted my letter of application on my blog on https://blogs.ubc.ca/scottblog/2018/05/21/301-application-letter-for-team-formulation/ on May 21, 2018. And I also posted the link to my application letter on ENGL301 Facebook group.

My application letter includes:

·       My purpose of this application: apply to be a member of ENGL301 writing professional team.

·       My previous writing experience as a private tutor teaching English writing.

·       My academic achievement of writing including getting good grades in IELTS and ENGL112.

·       My strength: the passion and motivation for learning technical writing.

·       My weakness: Essay is non-fluent as a non-native English speaker.

·       My learning philosophy “practice makes perfect” and valuing feedbacks.

·       Other information and my contact email.

Please let me know if you need additional information. I am looking forward to hearing your response.

Enclosure: 301 Haotong Wang  Application-Letter

Hi Liz,

After looking through your application letter, I am very happy to team up with you. It is amazing to hear from you that you have written over 30 papers by yourself while I am afraid of writing paper. I believe you can learn how to draft, write and edit report by working with you. Hope you can Join my team.

Here is the link to my Application letter

Thanks,

Haotong Wang

Hi Mariel Jones,

After looking through your application letter, I am very happy to team up with you. You had a lot of background and experiences which proves you are a really good effective communicator. I believe I can learn from you how to communicate with various people in society. Hope you can join my current team and work together.

Here is my link to my application letter

Thanks,

Haotong Wang

1-2679 Fairview Crescent

Vancouver, BC V6T 2B8

May 21, 2018

The 301 Technical Writing Class

2329 West Mall

Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4

Dear Classmates of ENGL 301:

I want to apply to be a professional member of your writing team, as posted on blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-technicalwriting-98a-2018/unit-1/lesson-2. As a student from BCS program that would graduate soon, I believe this opportunity will be a valuable experience for me to master my technical writing ability.

I have been writing lover since I started learning English. I always enjoy writing some documents to someone else because I think writing is a beautiful word art. I used to be a private English tutor who teaches writing skills to a student in junior school. Also, I scored 7 (out of 9) at the writing section of IELTS (The International English Language Testing System) and passed the course ENGL 112 (Strategies for University Writing) with a good grade. I am sure these experiences could make me a competitive candidate for your writing team.

I am passionate about learning technical writing, which is one of my strengths. I am willing to explore new strategies and techniques in technical writing and responsible for any team tasks and peer reviews. However, I am not a native speaker, so my essays may not be native and fluent, but I am receptive to any suggestions and corrections from anyone since I believe these critical feedbacks are worthy to me to perfect my writing ability.

Regarding my learning philosophy, I believe the motto “practice makes perfect.” Therefore, every assignment or essay would be an excellent practice to me, and I would treat them seriously. Besides, reading other teammates’ essays and give my comments is also an effective method to draw on each other’s strength. And good feedbacks are also very beneficial to offset my weakness.

My email is v9m1b@ugrad.cs.ubc.ca. If my background meets your needs, feel free to response me as soon as possible.

Sincerely,

Haotong Wang

File: 301-Haotong-Wang-Application-Letter