Reading a Scientific Paper: Pause. Google every other word. Start again.

Module 2 has definitely been the steepest learning curve yet. When 20.109 req’s said we had to have taken 6.00, I didn’t really understand what we’d do with a programming background. And then they unleashed R. When I check and recheck the instructions for how to program something, I really wish I’d paid more attention to and retained more 6.00. I still have the monsters of this module - the journal presentation and the research article - to come.


With regards to the journal presentation, I selected my paper by reading the abstracts of papers whose titles sounded cool. What I really should’ve have done, though, was taken a peek at the length of the paper I chose: a whopping 40 pages. Thankfully, I had time over spring break to get through it (it literally took me a whole day to read and begin to process). I think the toughest part of reading this paper was remembering what the point of the whole article was - by page 25 and on supplemental figure 5.12 (hehe like 5.12 but not) my head was spinning and I forgot what the original hypothesis was. But, I got through it (I think) and am really excited about the presentation :)
As soon as the journal presentation is over, I’m spending all of my time on this 14 page research article. Wish me luck!


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