This semester at UBC I was fortunate enough to be a part of English 301’s online class, “Technical Writing”, where I have learned a great deal when it comes to conducting myself in a professional manner through the creation of multiple professionally written assignments. Below are a number of examples of my “Best Works” from English 301. Each assignment is briefly outlined, followed by a PDF link to the actual assignment itself.
Technical Definition Assignment
In the Technical Definition assignment students were asked to write three definitions, a parenthetical definition, a sentence definition, and an expanded definition. I chose to define the word “historiography” for this assignment. Defining this word three different ways required me to be more creative, as I had to think of more than one approach to understanding the word. This assignment taught me how to write clearly and concise, as it is easy to misinterpret a definition when it is not defined clearly.
Formal Report Proposal
The Formal Report was definitely the assignment I enjoyed the most during this semester. For the proposal portion of this assignment it was our job was to investigate a problem that is occurring at our job, and we were to create a proposal that addresses the problem and calls for action. I chose to do my assignment on food waste in the restaurant industry, and how the current waste management system at my place of work, Milestones Bar and Grill, could use a new system that ultimately gives back to the community. The creation of a proposal helped me gain a foundational understanding of my topic of choice, which helped set me up for the research portion of the assignment.
301- Taylor-Smith-Formal Report Proposal
Formal Report Progress Memo
Learning how to write a professional Email memorandum was something myself and my peers were required to do a few times throughout the semester. In this example I am writing to Dr. Paterson with a progress report pertaining to my Formal Report. The information that was required in the memorandum included, but not limited to, my research plan and writing schedule. I found the writing schedule to be quite helpful, as I have never approached a large assignment this way. I found that by mapping out a writing schedule I was able to stress less about my project, as my schedule made sure to spread out my tasks in order to avoid feeling overwhelmed.
301- Taylor Smith- Email Memorandum-Progress Report-
Complaint Letter
During this portion of the course students followed instructions from the textbook, Technical Communication, on how to employ strategies when writing business letters. We focused on a Complaint Letter, and a Bad News Letter. For my Best Works section I would like to showcase my Complaint Letter.
301- Taylor Smith- Complaint Letter
Peer Review of a LinkedIn Profile Page
We were asked to complete a number of Peer Review’s throughout the semester, and one that I would like to showcase here is my review of Team Member, Lia Slager’s LinkedIn profile. This assignment involved two things: (a) to create a peer review template that can be used to review an individual’s LinkedIn profile, and (b) to peer review a team member’s LinkedIn profile using my created template. These to activities were very helpful when it comes to how to provide constructive criticism to a colleagues work.
301-Taylor Smith-LinkedIn Peer Review
Peer Review of a Formal Report
Could not complete, due to group inactivity. Unfortunately, no other group members posted their Formal Reports to the Team Forum.