Unit 2 was an important growth stage of my technical wriitng skills. This unit challenged students to start developing researching skills which was a critical task for future assignments. Our first research assignment was composing tips for best practices when using LinkedIn, the final research lesson in this unit was building a proposal for a formal report.
LinkedIn is Worth the Hype!
The excessive use of social media streams has repelled me from having an active profile on any of the various platforms. Assignment 2:2 highly affected my opinion in the opposite direction; after researching various forms of LinkedIn practices, I am motivated to revisit my profile and commit to using this platform as a means of making important connections. There is vast information regarding how to use LinkedIn to your advantage throughout the internet, each article is logical and inspiring. I am excited to complete a professional networking page and explore the opportunities in marketing myself with industry peers.
The writing assignment in itself taught me how to avoid using imperative verbs when writing tips or suggestions to a peer in order to improve the tone on a more positive level.
Building an Idea for a Formal Report
The most difficult component was brainstorming an idea that relates to my academic and employment worlds, as well as a concept that can incorporate the several requirements for the final draft. Once I committed to the idea of reducing the environmental footprint at the Real Estate office, the subsequent assignments were straightforward and exciting.
Formal Research Proposal
I wasn’t sure what I was working with until I compiled the proposal. The abstract of my research evolved as I read through new information on the topic I was dissecting. This assignment allowed me to work with an idea that was later shaped into a concept for a formal research report.
Formal Research Outline & Progress Update Memo
This section felt like the most useful.
- Outlining each step of the process in an outline was surprisingly quick and allowed me to visualize completion of this project.
- The survey creation portion of this assignment was intricate. I realized how easy it would be to offend a surveyor, therefore each word needed to be evaluated accordingly.
- The writing schedule was particularly useful to ensure the final draft was on a logical, timely schedule, as well as ensured I time-blocked the necessary moving parts into my calendar.
Continuing to Develop Review Skills
My experience with reading Helene’s proposal is similar to the peer review in unit 1, where a higher level of reading analysis is needed to offer useful suggestions. That said, I found the outline to be more difficult to review, as the topic and research processes are both new to me. I felt my recommendations were limited.
Reviewing Helene Tran’s Proposal
Helene Tran’s peer review of my work helped me realize my sentence structures need improvement. I need to focus on using articles and prepositions correctly. Secondly, as I find this formal report writing process to be intimidating, it was comforting to read a peer’s positive view on my topic and proposal.
Thoughts on the Formal Report Process
The course broke down the Formal Report into several smaller parts. I find this structure to not only be logical, but extremely helpful. Reading assignments from my peers, who are working on a similar writing project, offer valuable insight to the level and expectation of quality for my own assignments.
Completing another Unit
Upon completing unit 2, I noticed the quality of my writing according to the feedback given was growing stronger. Completing the halfway point and continuing into unit 3 was exciting and accomplishing.