In this post, I will be reflecting upon my experience in Unit Three. In particular, I will be focusing on my process of researching and conducting surveys for the formal report, writing a first draft, and conducting a peer review.
In terms of finding secondary sources for my formal report, I was able to find many research papers and government studies. Although quite a few were dated, I made sure to use the most recent studies for my report. In terms of conducting the survey, I found the UBC Qualtrics survey tool to be quite easy to use. It also provided figures for my report which was really helpful. Unfortunately, I did not get as many responses as I had hoped for.
Writing the report was much more difficult than I had expected as I struggled with how to organize the sections and present my findings. Fortunately, it was a first draft and I felt a little less pressure. I knew that my teammate would review my work and provide helpful feedback that I can implement before the final deadline. It was also while writing the first draft that I realized how helpful it was to have created the formal report outline in the previous unit.
Finally, because of the length of the reports, the peer review process took much longer than for any previous assignment. While reading my teammate’s formal report, I tried to read it from the perspective of the intended reader. From conducting the peer review, I was also able to go back and critique my own report. I really enjoyed my peer’s visuals and thought mine were a bit bland in comparison. As usual, there were also many aspects of the report that we did differently. For instance, I had broken up my introduction into several sub sections whereas my peer had not. I suggested to my peer that he change this, but of course it is his report and his choice.
Link to Formal Report Draft : https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-98a-2021sa/2021/07/14/vishnu-rengan-formal-report-draft/
Link to Peer Review of Daniel’s Report: https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-98a-2021sa/2021/07/19/peer-review-of-daniel-aghdas-formal-report-draft-vishnu-rengan/