To: Ms.

Jacqueline Parkison
From: Aryan Ghadge
Date: October 25, 2020
Re: Project #2 Reflective Memo

For the past two weeks I have been working on the white paper regarding the topic
of improving suburban railway networks. This involved researching the topic and
writing a draft proposal, to then writing an in-depth draft of a white paper, to finally
improving on the draft to obtain the final version. I chose the topic of the suburban
railway network as I felt that it is a critical issue that needs to be addressed
immediately and one that can potentially affect millions of people. I started off
with a background on the topic to give readers an idea about the system. This
meant that they new the existing conditions and a bit of history about the railway
network. This could potentially be useful to someone not from Mumbai. Next, I
considered the main issues that I could find regarding the railway network. I
trawled multiple resources to boil it down to 4-5 critical issues. These were then
considered in-depth, to explain to the reader why I considered them to be issues.
Visuals were used to depict my points, such as by showing how Mumbai’s
population has continued to grow but the railway network has not kept pace. After
that, the solutions addressed each of the problems listed individually. I thought of
this as a systematic approach to look at possible solutions. It also allows people to
link each of the problem listed to a solution listed below in their mind. One of the
strengths of my content are my self-designed visuals. I feel they are very simple but
very intuitive in the way they explain the point they are trying to explain. I also got
positive feedback on the visuals, so I believe them to be a strength. One of the
weakness I feel is the lack of in-text citations. I got most of the information needed
from a limited number of resources and did not expand upon them. In future
version, I would add more in text citations and references as I feel my current paper
lacks them and I consider this to be a weakness. I received feedback to make sure I
specified in the abstract who I was targeting the white paper for. This change ws
made, wherein I specified the paper was meant for local government officials and
the citizens of Mumbai.

In the design part, I adopted a simple format without any decorations. I used a
visual on the cover page to attract people’s attention and interest, after receiving
feedback about it. I chose an image that showed a typical crowded train at a rush
hour. I also forgot to have the table of contents in the original draft, and that was an
important revision that I made in the later version. Some more important feedback
that I received was to add the font size of my subheadings within each section.
Originally, the font size was the same for the subheadings and the text within, so it
was difficult to distinguish between the two briefly. One of the strengths of my
visual is the consistent formatting I have used for all of them. This allows them to
have a professional look. Another strength in my design was having all the sections
appropriately labelled and arranged in a particular order. A weakness in my design,
as mentioned, was the font sizes used and the missing table of contents. These
changes were then rectified.

Overall, it was a very interesting experience to write this paper.

Yours Sincerely,
Aryan Ghadge.

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