This was an excellent unit not only for my advancing my technical writing skills, but also for the acceleration and progression of my desired career path as an independent dental hygienist. My chosen topic for the formal report was a challenging one, though it is where my passion lies and thus, I took a chance with it.
The process of researching the report on introducing a new product to an already established dental supply company was the most enjoyable part, it wasn’t until writing the draft that the challenges were made obvious. These included creating a budget for the project. To combat this challenge, I extensively researched what I thought would be the minimum budget, and then multiplied it by 15% to factor in alternate expenses and ensure success of the project. This challenge, as well as the task of organizing the report, opened up new questions that I did not have the time or resources to look into, like how much it would cost to test and approve this new product to either gain FDA or CDA label approval. In this way, I saw that my report could me made more simple if I were merely capturing the opinions and interests towards having a natural polish implemented, vs. going as far as actually creating and selling this product which consequently entails a far more in-depth report to completely cover all bases. In this way, I feel as though I have a great deal of work to do in my editing process before submitting my final draft of the formal report.
I deeply valued this exercise and intend to write somewhat similar reports in the future. One thing I will do differently is conduct more one-on-one, open ended interviews with professionals in the relative areas. I see this as preliminary research before my own research would begin; it would be a way for me to take advantage of those professionals who have travelled down similar paths as I wish to, but to learn form their pitfalls and their strengths. Ultimately this could accelerate the process of my research and ensure I am proposing an idea that is both influential and essential to the progression of my field. Lastly, since my report was presenting a product that I hope to see in the dental market, it was a challenge for me to consistently write with you-attitude and in a professional, non-biased tone to ensure my report did not sound like a marketing scheme. I will continue to pay close attention to effectively write with you-attitude.
I found the task of peer-reviewing my team member’s report to be just as challenging as it was interesting and fun. Nonetheless, it was informative and an excellent learning process as worked to put myself in the shoes of the target audience whereas my own report would have greatly benefited if I had done just this in the process of writing it. Polina and I had quite different ideas for our proposal, which was beneficial to the learning process as well. Hers was much more scientifically detailed whereas my own more report was targeted at a more broad audience with a solution that was not already in place (like the Green Initiative), but was a completely new or innovative solution. What I enjoyed from reading both Polina’s draft and Andriy’s proposal, was that we are all geared towards a more ‘greener’ way of living and directly incorporating and implementing this living into our fields of interest.
Enclosed 1 – My Report Draft: formal-report-siarra-sens
Enclosed 2 – Peer Review of my Report Draft: engl-301-report-draft-peer-review-for-siarra-sens-by-polina-beskrovnaya
Enclosed3 – My Peer Review of Polina’s Report: formal-report-peer-review-for-polina