The Proposal (2009)

The sequel to the hit 2009 Sandra Bullock rom-com, The Research Proposal is coming to a theatre near you.

I have come a long way since when I first began 20.109. I started this semester naive, but now I am wise. I know what sections go into a research article. I know what methods are necessary and what methods are gratuitous. I can write a convincing-sounding title and abstract. Basically, I can pass as proficient in scientific communication, though maybe not yet fluent.

Flashback to February. I didn't even know how to write an introduction. I didn't understand any conventions. The organization of papers and paper sections was a mystery to me. I couldn't even read papers beyond their abstracts. It hadn't yet been beaten into me to use "here we show" verbatim in my abstracts.

20.109 taught me so much as a science communicator. I can't believe I never picked up on the proper format of writing a paper from all the papers I'd read before, but it wasn't until the comm lab presentation where we were asked to dissect and rearrange abstracts and introductions that I finally truly understood what the "hourglass" structure meant, or how general my introduction should start off and how specific it should end up. And how gratuitous would my methods section be if it weren't for the guidance of the instructors, giving me feedback on iterative versions of the same methods, telling me where to cut down and where to elaborate.

Some things I figured out on my own. The format for a figure caption from Mod1? Check out my revelational recipe in my very first blog post. Something I struggled with, as I talked about in that blog post, was turning the caption into a results section. If you talk about what is in the figure in the caption, what more do you have to say in the results section? Striking a good balance and knowing what properly belongs in a caption vs the results body was really difficult for me. It still is! What is too discussion-y to go into results? What is too caption-y?

I think the best resource for learning these nuances is just to read more papers while keeping an eye out for these organizational choices. I know I always have the comm lab at my disposal for a second opinion and good tips from more experienced writers.

As I write my Mod3 Mini-report, which is basically a rehash of the Mod1 Data-summary, I realize just how trivial this assignment is while it felt so difficult just a few months ago. 

I also think figure-making will be the death of me, but maybe that's only because my experience with image editing software is limited to MS Paint.

Happy researching,
Melody



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