Mediocre, Better, Pretty Good: Self-Assessment Reflection

This semester has been quite a journey for me as a technical writer, and I’d like to take a moment to reflect on my progress thus far. A multitude and a variety of assignments were written this term, ranging from memos, to a formal report, and even a web folio. Although some people would not think this is a lot of writing, by volume it’s the most I’ve written in several years by far!

At the start of the term, we (students in the ENGL 301 course) were tasked with setting up our blogs and forming writing teams. Although I was uncertain what tasks we would need to complete as a team, or how this would work, I am extremely grateful that I had the chance to work with this team! I was provided with some very insightful advice, and in exchange I provided my best advice as well. Over time my peer reviews for my team definitely showed improvement. My first peer review before revisions was quite difficult to read with its blocks of text. By the last peer review I already memorized the content structure and kept important writing tips in mind, such as maintaining the “YOU” attitude, avoiding negatives, and re-phrasing pronoun sentences. In addition to improving the quality of the advice I could provide, I also learned how to format it in a way that is easy to read and clearly actionable.

Other assignments provided plentiful learning opportunities in a variety of formats. The wide range of technical pieces of writing I wrote strengthened my ability to keep a professional tone while being succinct, and deliver information in a way that is most beneficial to the reader. Some of these works include the formal definitions, analytical report proposal, report progress update, the report itself, and business letters. The advice I received from peer reviews and instructor evaluations allowed me to strengthen my writing across a wide range of media. I’m confident I’ll be able to manage any type of technical communication I need to write, even if it wasn’t explicitly part of this course.

Lastly, all aspects of the formal report were very helpful in improving my writing abilities! I think these set of assignments (the proposal, outline, progress update, and final report) had the biggest difference between the first draft and the final edits with peer reviews taken into consideration. Even seemingly small things, such as the introductory paragraph for a survey, was new to me, and I certainly learned a lot!  I’m very proud of the resulting analytical report and related writing, and I think this is a good way to show the iterative skills I gained along the way! A Statistics professor even expressed interest in the results of the report, so I made it as genuine as possible.

Lastly, I would like to express tremendous gratitude towards my group members, who were a pleasure to work with and provided thoughtful, detailed advice. Without them I would not have progressed as far as I have in this course.

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