The Thrill of the Chase
What I learned from writing the Mod2 research article:
Looking at my laptop screen all day Saturday, there was an array of highlighted colors on my word document, with colors signaling "move to discussion," "needs improvement," "mention in introduction," "remove," etc. As the day progressed, my screen became less and less colorful as a more formulated story line began to emerge from the jumble of words.
A story line emerging:
When all was black and white, and after a few more read-throughs, it was time to submit! After submitting, I thought 'what's done is done, and a job well done is a job well done!'
I realized that writing a research story can be fun, and I am capable of doing it thanks to all the support from the 20.109 staff, my fellow Course 20ers, and the BE CommLab. I might even want to go to graduate school now...
And despite all the groaning, there was also a thrill (?)...Have you ever felt that you were exactly where you were supposed to be doing exactly what you were supposed to be doing? Well, I felt that way on Saturday, and even though it was a long, sedentary day, I honestly don't think I would have wanted it any other way. Even as I was resizing a heatmap on PowerPoint, I felt greatly encouraged that MIT and Course 20 are my niche. I have been tremendously blessed this semester and many of those blessings have been through 20.109!
What really helped me write the article was taking detailed notes in my lab notebook as I went along. By writing out detailed descriptions and interpretations as they were made, I was able to reuse a lot of those observations in my results, discussion, and figure captions. I cannot overemphasize the importance of keeping a good lab notebook; I definitely referenced it a lot while writing my report.
After finishing on Saturday, I exited out of all my Mod2 entries, leaving my Benchling so clean with only M3D1 open. It will soon become "cluttered" again; but this is the good, scientific form of clutter: an aggregation of ideas from which the next story line will emerge.
~Zion Perry
Looking at my laptop screen all day Saturday, there was an array of highlighted colors on my word document, with colors signaling "move to discussion," "needs improvement," "mention in introduction," "remove," etc. As the day progressed, my screen became less and less colorful as a more formulated story line began to emerge from the jumble of words.
A story line emerging:
When all was black and white, and after a few more read-throughs, it was time to submit! After submitting, I thought 'what's done is done, and a job well done is a job well done!'
I realized that writing a research story can be fun, and I am capable of doing it thanks to all the support from the 20.109 staff, my fellow Course 20ers, and the BE CommLab. I might even want to go to graduate school now...
And despite all the groaning, there was also a thrill (?)...Have you ever felt that you were exactly where you were supposed to be doing exactly what you were supposed to be doing? Well, I felt that way on Saturday, and even though it was a long, sedentary day, I honestly don't think I would have wanted it any other way. Even as I was resizing a heatmap on PowerPoint, I felt greatly encouraged that MIT and Course 20 are my niche. I have been tremendously blessed this semester and many of those blessings have been through 20.109!
What really helped me write the article was taking detailed notes in my lab notebook as I went along. By writing out detailed descriptions and interpretations as they were made, I was able to reuse a lot of those observations in my results, discussion, and figure captions. I cannot overemphasize the importance of keeping a good lab notebook; I definitely referenced it a lot while writing my report.
After finishing on Saturday, I exited out of all my Mod2 entries, leaving my Benchling so clean with only M3D1 open. It will soon become "cluttered" again; but this is the good, scientific form of clutter: an aggregation of ideas from which the next story line will emerge.
~Zion Perry
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