NICOLAS PERESSIN
(778) 888-0112

Technical Writing 301 September 13, 2016

Class of Fall 2016

University of British Columbia

Dear Technical Writing 301 Fall class of 2016,

Please consider me, a determined, highly experienced senior chemistry undergraduate at the University of British Columbia asa member in your technical writing team. My future career within the science industry will undoubtedly depend upon my technical writing skills to some degree. I am looking forward to strengthening those skills together, in a group with like-minded peers who also look to develop their skills in technical writing 301.

I have always felt my writing style is conciseand to the point. Writing primarily from a scientific perspective, I excel at sticking to the purpose of a particular piece of writing and not deviating from the subject. I avoid using filler words that may erroneously emphasize a point, and instead use examples, facts and details to support my claims. This style of writing tends to highlight a weakness however, which I would describe as bland or boring writing. I feel my writing sometimes lacks creativity, which can also lead to “writers block”. When I run into situations where I can’t get anything on paper, I take a break, work on something else, and return to the paper at a later time.

In order to work on these writing issues, I feel the best thing I can do is to practice. In the past, my learning philosophy has been the age old saying, “practice makes perfect”. This is consistent with many skills, not just academic. Throughout my life, I have taken up many challenges including sports such as soccer, lacrosse and rugby, musical instruments such as guitar and clarinet, jobs working with dangerous industrial equipment and more. In all of these examples, my overall success has come from my willingness to learn the basics, followed by practice, practice, and more practice. I know that during our journey through Technical Writing 301, we will have many opportunities to practice our craft, which perfectly complements my learning philosophy.

Throughout previous Co-op work terms, I have gained a great deal of experience in technical writing. Working for the Department of National Defence, I was tasked with research and development of a radar absorbing material. At the end of my term, I had written a (ca. 60 page) report that would document my major findings over the course of numerous experiments. The report had to be thorough, informative, easy to follow, and would have to allow readers with no previous experience in the project to perform replicate experiments. The paper was well received by colleagues and superiors, and was eventually published within the governments internal database.

While working for Ballard Power Systems, one of my main projects was to write an operations manual for a new carbon coater device. The project required me to gather data, test the device extensively, and write a document that would allow for users with no knowledge of the device to operate the equipment safely. Writing the document would require attention to detail, easy to follow formatting, anticipation of questions and concerns operators may have, and most importantly, it would have to written in a way that would ensure the safety of the operator.

I believe my previous technical writing experience in the sciences will allow me to contribute a great deal to the right writing team. I have proven to be a hard, diligent worker and will continue to persist in order to achieve success in this course. I invite any peers with similar goals, aspirations and work ethic to contact me with regards to forming a writing team. I look forward to getting in contact with such students to discuss matters further. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Nicolas Peressin