Category Archives: Blogs

Blog Posts

A Brief Introduction to My Reflection Blog Posts

Introduction to My Reflection Blog Posts

December 4, 2016

The following blog posts are a personal recollections of my experience throughout the semester of Fall 2016. The learning experience was a difficult one, but it was very rewarding. Beyond improving my ability to write, I have effectively improved on my communication skills with strangers that I have never met before. It still amazes me how I have been apart of a team of writers that assembled quickly and created a great bond with each other online. I cannot express enough gratitude to Dr. Paterson, Ms. Spencer, and my PW301 team members’ guidance. Thank you everybody, I truly will never forget it.

Final Reflection – Process of Creating a Web Folio

Unit 4 Web Folio Reflection

December 4, 2016

The Process

I have chosen to transform my ENGL 301 blog into my Web Folio due to WordPress’ flexible layout style and the ease of transition, without having to move a bulk of my documents. Having to collect all the necessary items, as well as to selectively curating what to post was a difficult decision to make. Looking back to what I have accumulated this semester, I honestly feel glad that ENGL 301 was one of my first classes I have taken at UBC. The class helped me realize that my writing skills have degraded over the hiatus I have taken after my graduation from SFU, and I have also learned that I can still gain a trick or two.

The Final Product

After putting together my final pieces to my Web Folio, I had a moment of “self-congratulatory” silence. It’s been a difficult transition from full-time work to schooling again. Looking at the Web Folio, it helped me realize my passion for web-development, which was forgotten during my full-time work years, and I need to develop more meaningful skills such as computer language proficiency.

The Future

By learning the proper way to communicate and write within a technical setting, I am confident that I can effectively succeed in the future, wherever it may be. I have enjoyed ENGL 301 and I highly recommend it to others as the class teaches you fundamental communication skills.

Unit 4 Self-Assessment Reflection

Unit 4 Self-Assessment Reflection

December 4, 2016

Strengths & Weaknesses in My Learning Process

Regarding my strengths and weaknesses in my learning process, it can be summarized in a single sentence. I require many hours of practice, and I need a peer to keep me on track as I tend to develop my own version of work during my progression. Although I am capable of learning something through repetition, I tend to develop a tangent method and this causes me to develop a bad habit. Throughout this semester, I have learned that having a strong peer network can be an advantage of mine to keep my learning process on the right path.

23123

Strengths & Weaknesses in My Assignments

Within my assignments, my peers will agree that there is intense passion about the work. This is a double edged sword as I tend to develop “tunnel vision“. Perhaps this type of work ethic was developed within me due to my Psychology background. To elaborate, when writing a Psychology paper, a bit of “tunnel vision” is required to strengthen arguments, with disclaimers for faults within the argument. Through ENGL 301, my peers were quick to tell me that I need to develop a way to recognize my faults within the work and reprimand this.

Skills & Strength as a Student to Support my Future Career Goals

ENGL 301 has been a wake up call for me. Personally, after graduating with my prior degree, I had been very confident about my writing style and effectiveness of my communication skills. However, I rediscovered that I am nowhere near on par with real world professionals, and my writing skills have degraded over the years. I am extremely glad I applied for UBC for a second degree and I intend to restructure the way I communicate with others. In the future, I hope to lead a team of programmers to form a startup company. With what I have learned from this course, I know I can be a better leader than before.

screenshot-2016-12-04-03-27-23

Unit 3 Reflection Blog – Formal Report Draft

Unit 3 Reflection Blog

November 21, 2016

“YOU” Focused Writing

Reflecting on unit 3 assignments, I have learned about the process of putting together a formal report with the use of “YOU” focused writing style. Having written many psychology papers, it was extremely challenging to write a “YOU” focused style papers. I have been trained to avoid such wording and crafted essays that focused on the subject, instead of writing with the “YOU” in mind.

Collection of Data for Formal Report Draft

Researching for the formal report draft was a difficult and time consuming task. Having to gather the necessary people and taking their time of the day to collect survey data was not simple as I had initially thought. However, I am very grateful to the people whom have taken a part of the data collection portion. The research did not yield a conclusion that challenge the status quo of the current state of Starbucks Canada. Organizing the formal report was and is still an ongoing challenge that I have great deal of stress with. I have been more oral in communicating with coworkers and upper management staff members during the years, having to write it on paper was very challenging and organizing in an effective manner is still challenging.

screenshot-2016-12-04-02-26-22

Survey Result – “Design Satisfaction”

Peer Review Process

The peer review of the formal report really opened my eyes to what an effective formal report may look like. I have reviewed Ajay’s work and it was much better than the sample formal report that has been illustrated in the textbook. The use of design was something that hadn’t occurred to me and, it gave a boost to the overall esthetics of the paper.

 

URL of Formal Report Draft: LINK

URL of Ajay’s Peer Review of My Formal Report Draft: LINK

 

Unit 2 Reflection Blog – LinkedIn’s Usefulness

Unit 2 Reflection Blog

October 27, 2016

LinkedIn

Reflecting on this week’s assignments, I was taken by surprise how useful, intimidating, and sophisticated LinkedIn is. Creating the correct kind of profile was a big challenge to me as I have never used such a website to present myself. I hope to use what I have learned from this experience to improve upon my LinkedIn profile in the future.

screenshot-2016-12-04-02-13-20

My mini-LinkedIn Profile Screenshot

Formal Report

As the weekly assignment on our webpage indicates, I have complied my Formal Report proposal and the outline. It has been an exhilarating experience. I truly feel passionate about making a change in how Starbucks Canada operates. Even if the report fails to be conclusive or does not yield any support for the idea, I feel good to actually have a positive input to the company that I feel passionate about. As of now I am waiting for the green light from Dr. Paterson to approve of my research topic, I hope she agrees with me and I cannot wait to collect data to see if any significant amount of people are willing to come on board with the idea. Reflecting on my peer reviewer, I can tell he was happy with the ideas presented. Ajay was kind enough to suggest fixes for grammatical errors and the environmental factors I haven’t thought of. As I reviewed Ajay’s proposal, I learned that an in depth scope would help with the research part, as I have focused on what the company would like, rather than the impact that it may cause for the surrounding industry.

Peer Review of LinkedIn Profiles

Finally, both my peer review of Jade‘s LinkedIn profile and Ajay’s proposal allowed me to revise the style I write it. I have been writing in a casual tone while I was out of school for a year and a half. I must retool my writing style that is suitable to academic writing. I was very impressed with Jade’s writing and Ajay’s ambitious proposal, it made me realize that I should really focus and work harder to keep up to their level of writing. Last, I feel that by having the peer review process, I have been a little more cautious about what I write and how I present the idea. It occurred to me that I have an impactful way of writing, that is not suitable for professional grade.

 

DOC file of Revised Proposal with Peer Reviewer’s Input

301-revised-steven-seungyup-lee-fomal-report-proposal

Hyper Link to Peer Review of my Proposal

http://engl301.arts.ubc.ca/2016/10/09/peer-review-formal-report-proposal/

Unit 1 Reflection Blog – The Beginning

Unit 1 Reflection Blog

October 3, 2016

The last assignment of Unit one allowed me to reflect on what I have written, with my peers reviewing it. I have learned that my technical writing style requires more attention towards the audience, whom has never studied psychology. My attempt to introduce “cognitive dissonance” used technical jargons that are unfamiliar to a broad audience. I chose to utilize more examples and explanation methods to explain the concept. Through my peer review feedback I have received, I have edited my definition paper with more expanded examples and less technical jargon.

Original Draft

When I was writing the original draft, I went through the process of addressing a broad audience. I have chosen to write in a manner that initially dulled down the grammar so that everyone can understand. However, this made the document extremely dull and it had undermined the reader. Thus, I have decided to utilize some technical terms to explain the concept while adding various types of examples of the concept so the audience may understand through more than one example, without allowing the text to be dulled down.

cognitivedissonance

My attempt to use visuals for Cognitive Dissonance.

Peer Review Process

I have had the opportunity to take a look at Alyssia Law’s peer review of my definition paper. While reviewing, I realized the use of technical terms hinders the readers from fully understanding the concept or definitions. My use of psychology terms is not understood by anybody unfamiliar with psychology. Expecting the audience to understand my use of visual representation without proper explanation was my mistake. Also, I learned that expanded examples were great for understanding hard concepts as it frames it into context others can understand. I have learned that I should strengthen my examples, as it would allow my readers to frame the concept in a practical manner.

When I was given the opportunity to send feedback on my peer’s work, I learned many things that never occurred to me. Technical jargon is hard to bypass when explaining a technical term. Perhaps it is because we are university students and we are so entrenched in our focus of study, we are unable to see technical terms that others cannot understand. As stated in the textbook, I worded my review very carefully and the results were very pleasing. I learned that even critical reviews can be drafted in a very polite manner and still be effective in carrying out the message.

Self-editing

While editing, I took into consideration of what Alyssia had explained to me. I have streamlined all jargon, to be more friendly towards non-technical readers, made explicit explanations on my parenthesis definition, and explained what is happening on my visual explanation. I have also expanded and described in detail of my examples, as well as added more definition inside the explanation to allow readers to understand what exactly is happening in the example.

Overall, I have learned that addressing a specific audience requires more than vocabulary that would match the audience’s level. Examples drawn from life related to the reader is helpful and examples are more useful if they are explained through easy to understand definitions themselves. I have learned that it is not enough to explain the definition; the reader has to understand and relate to it to fully utilize the item at hand.

self

Attachments:

Rewritten Definitions :301-1-3-edited-steven-seungyup-lee-definitions

Hyperlink of my Peer Review from Alyssia

Peer Review of Steve Lee’s Definitions Assignment

Email to my teammates

From: Steven Lee (syl24@live.com)

To: Alyssa Law (a_law61@hotmail.com), Ajay Brach (ajaybrach@gmail.com), Jade Ronse (jaderonse@outlook.com)

Subject: ENGL 301 Team members

Date: Sept. 19. 2016

Dear Team Members,

Thank you for your cooperation and quick assembly. I would like to especially thank Ajay for all his work. I have posted our team member list and team name on our class facebook page as requested in our instructor’s blog. I hope to see our forum page set-up soon. Attached is a copy of my application letter for those who did not get the chance to read it.

Thank you, Steven.

301-stevenlee-application-letter

Memorandum

To: Dr. Erika Paterson, Professor of ENGL 301

From: Steven Lee, Student of ENGL 301

Date: September 19th, 2016

Subject: Application Letter Submission

As indicated by ENGL 301 course website lesson 1:2, I have posted and attached my application letter to my blog.

The application letter attached to this memo is summarized:

  • A brief history of my education background
  • My strengths and weaknesses of my writing capacity
  • Professional background and work related ethics
  • Achievements and contact information

I look forward to meeting new individuals to work with and forming a team. Please contact me if you have any concerns about my application letter.

Thank you

Enclosure: 301 Steven Lee Application Letter

Letter of Application

123 Fake Street
Vancouver BC V3J 2A9
September 13, 2016

English 301: Technical Writing
University of British Columbia
2329 West Mall
Vancouver BC V6T 1Z4

 

Dear classmates:

Please consider my application as a member for the team writer position posted on the English 301 99A course website. I am a third year Computer Science student with a previous degree in Psychology from SFU. Dr. P. Crowe, my sponsor professor, described his time at UBC and encouraged me to pursue a second degree. I intend to be committed and supportive towards my writing team in accomplishing our tasks on time.

My writing skills are specialized in research, analysis, and limited technical writing. During my undergrad years, I have taken five writing intensive courses including the SFU’s version of technical writing six years ago. This experience, combined with SFU Psychology department’s demanding APA guidelines has given me the capacity to write in a clear, straight forward tone, within limitations. I have also worked as a freelance legal document creator for a local business, further demonstrating my capability in writing.

During my undergrad years at SFU, I had been given tasks to conduct research on undergraduates and create papers analyzing my findings with other published academic works. My writing style was to be concise, within guidelines, and meaningful. The work ethic made me to be team orientated, pay special attention to detail, and thrive in tight deadlines.

As a supervisor at a local Starbucks, I am well aware of the importance a team effort has for a successful outcome. Moreover, as an amateur programmer, I know that hard work and persistence is the key to success.

Thank you for reviewing my application. I look forward to have a positive impact on our writing team with my skills and prior knowledge. If you’d like to follow up on me, please contact me through Facebook group message (Steve Lee) or email me at syl24@live.com.

Sincerely,

Steven (Seungyup) Lee

301-stevenlee-application-letter