I spent the last week in the library

            The Mod 2 report is one of those things that you could probably have an infinite amount of time to work on it and never really feel done. Although I began writing it far in advance, it still came down to the wire when it came time to submit it, and the part that took the longest was definitely generating the figures. Generating acceptable looking heatmaps was a learning process to say the least, and figuring out how to present the figures in an order that made sense was quite the challenge. Should the TCGA data go with the RNA-Seq analysis where we did it or should it go at the end? Nobody knows. Starting early on this part was definitely a good idea, and it honestly wouldn’t have been possible without help from Josephine and Leslie.
The hardest part of the Mod 2 report for me was definitely crafting a cohesive story out of the data. I was personally overwhelmed by the amount of data and information we had obtained seemingly from nowhere. Stringing together the cell viability assay, the TCGA data, and the RNA-Seq was difficult since it seemed as though all of the pieces of data had such different messages. Although the comm. lab lectures gave really great advice for the order in which to write the report, I feel as though starting with the figures and results misses one key element that usually comes with the introduction and that is the element that ties all of the pieces of data together.
When you start with the figures it’s easy to fall in the trap of considering all of them as distinct elements when really they need to be considered as one part of a whole story. As a result, if I were to give one piece of advice for the report I would say that you should figure out what you’re going to talk about early on. From there it should be easier to have all of your figures and references fall into place. Unfortunately, this is also the most difficult part so having time to revise is nice even if it seems impossible.
Overall, I found the report to be possibly the most challenging assignment we have completed so far. The Mod 2 assignments overall were much more difficult than the Mod 1 assignment, although our data was a bit nicer. The report forced me to think a lot about what made scientific writing clear, and the presentation forced me to become more comfortable presenting on difficult scientific topics. Although it was a good learning experience, I’m not sad at all that the report is now done and I’m excited to see what Mod 3 brings!


-Domenic

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