Unit 3 Reflection Blog

In the third unit of the ENGL 301 course, we were tasked to write “ Writing with You Attitude Memo to Evan Crisp”, “ Business Letters: Complaint & Bad Newsletter”, a formal report draft, as well as two peer reviews. I learned much in this unit, and I am confident that these strategies are useful in the workplace.

“Writing with You Attitude Memo to Evan Crisp” Reflection

This assignment is by far the most challenging one because it was difficult to not use personal pronouns when I am writing a Memo to someone. However, this exercise made me understand that using personal pronouns too often, can make my message sound informal.

I learned that effective writer avoids using pronouns because they want to be respectful. Pronouns should be omitted or carefully used when we are providing suggestions, writing emails, or doing peer reviews.  Our message can sound condescending if we don’t know how to use a positive tone.

“ Business Letters: Complaint & Bad Newsletter” Reflection

This assignment helps me to place myself in the shoes of the manager -the person who receives my complain. In this exercise, I understand the importance of respecting readers even though they might make a mistake. The best way to file a complaint is not to just express our anger, but to communicate the problem effectively and in a respectful tone so that the person that receives our complaint will be more likely to help us.

“Formal Report Draft” Reflection

I enjoyed the process of writing a draft because I was able to learn about business writing. This is my first time taking a technical writing class, I was ignorant about the format of business writing and everything, but luckily the instructor blog provided me a lot of suggestions, and I use textbook’s examples to organize my draft.

I also encountered some problems when I was writing, the first problem I had is that, I can find little research on the subject I am writing about. My group member (Annie) also writes about this in her peer review of my draft. Annie said that my literacy review does not fit into the paper, which I agree with, and I will try my best to make parts fit these days.

“Peer Review Reflection”

In this stage of the assignment, I was able to see writing techniques that worked well in Annie’s assignment, and mirror that in my own writing. I like the way how Annie organizes her survey results, and I will probably do a similar organization these days. I was able to find parts of my writing that don’t fit and some parts that were written ungrammatically. Because I am not a native speaker, I appreciate other’s suggestions because I might not able to see the problems in my own writing.

In Unit Two, I learned how to set up LinkedIn profiles,  how to write a proposal, formal report outline, and progress report. I enjoyed this unit very much because the assignments are very practical, and I think the skills I learned from these assignments could be used in my other field of study as well.

The assignment that I most enjoy writing is the formal proposal. It is rare in other classes that students could select a topic they are interested in writing. My proposal is ” Purchase wheelchair attachable shopping carts in DaRunFa supermarket”, I was inspired by the list of the topics that the 301-Hand-out-Formal-Report provided me. I think that these topics are all trying to benefit people, so I wanted to write something that may potentially improve handicapped people as well. Luckily, because I worked at DaRunFa before, I am able to set up a meeting with my former manager, and I am excited to hear my former manager say that this idea is really good, and he will think about it once I finish my formal report. I didn’t expect my school project could actually be useful in real life, and I am very glad that I took this course, which will not only help me to write in a more professional way but also help me to think about how I could make difference in my workplace. With this experience, I might be more confident in the future to bring about change.

I also would like to thank my groupmate for reviewing my proposal. I think peer review is very useful because my group member’s suggestions allow me to see my work more objectively, they are able to see mistakes that I cannot see. And when I am peer-reviewing, I am also learning new things such as style (organization), grammar, structure, and how to address the intended audience.

Setting up a LinkedIn profile is a new experience for me, I think I might continue to use this profile in the future when I am actually working. I am surprised that I have already received emails about offering me a job.

In sum, in Unit Two I learned many valuable things, and I have grown to appreciate that school projects are not only limited in the academic realm, but also in real life.

Unit 1 Reflection Blog 

In Unit 1, I learned how to write an application letter, memos, emails, types of definitions of a technical term, and peer review. What a productive unit!  The application letter assignment allows me to reflect on my strengths and weaknesses in writing, I learned that when writing an application, we as applicants, must think about how to “market” ourselves to other people. In this unit, I also learned how to write a memo, I see the difference between an email and a memo; in a memo, the content is more official and more concise. It is like an outline, informing the receiver about your process in a project. Emails are less formal between group members, and I don’t always include an attachment in emails, and sometimes I and my group members communicate without adding our names on the top.

As for assignment 1.3, I think I benefit more from writing a peer review then doing the assignment. The process of peer review is also a process of reflecting on my own work. I become more familiar with the assignment instructions, and after writing the peer review, I go back to my assignment and made changes based on my suggestions to others. For instance, I did not include an introduction and a conclusion in my assignment, so I added in my revised definition assignment. I also learned that my format needs to be improved, therefore, I organize my revised definition assignment using bolded subheadings, listing the parenthesis definition, sentence definition, and expanded definition more clearly. I also learned the MLA citation format in this unit, in my other classes, we mainly use the APA citation format.

Although no one reviewed my assignment, I am still able to learn something from reviewing others’ work, and see how other member write their definition assignment and learn from them. In their assignments, a lesson I gained is that, when defining a technical term, we need to think of ourselves as the reader or put ourselves in the reader’s shoes. Using common sense to explain difficult concepts.

Please see my revised definition assignment:

ENGL301-Shujunpeng-Revised-Definition-Assignment-1.3）

Hello, My name is Shujun Peng. Welcome to my blog. I am a third-year student and I study in the University of British Columbia. I take the IDST program. I take Asia study as my main area. I also interested in History and English.
English is an uneasy class. It not only focuses on English skills but it also focuses on the technology part. For this course, writing a good essay is not enough. Learning how to post it on a blog and how to learn from other students are also necessary for this course. Students can read different essays or articles from their classmates. It is a good opportunity for students to share their ideas and provide feedback to other students. Communication and cooperation are very important for the study.
Based on this course, there are more opportunities to listen to other classmates and talk with other classmates. I think it is good for us to learn different ways to share our article. Most people just used the word, pdf documents, or powerpoint to show their writing. The blog is not often to be used in academic areas. However, I think a blog is a good platform for sharing and learning. It is a fast way to get feedbacks from other readers. Posting essay on the blog is also hard for some people. I spend some time learning it but I just feel hard to make the blog colorful. For this course, I want to learn how to make my blog more attractive. Another important part is I want to learn from other classmates. I hope I can learn another way to share my essay and communicate with others.