Spring Broken about Journal Club

***(journal) club going up on a tuesday(/wednesday)!!!!(???)***

(just kidding, I don't understand that song lyric reference but thought it could work)

(Instead, I relate to this meme more: Image result for journal club meme)

Module 2 has been really fun so far, I love tissue-culture (especially spraying my gloves/things down with 70% EtOH). However, I am absolutely dreading journal club presentation. I'm incredibly self-conscious and introverted, and growing up, would barely talk to non-family members. Just imagining presenting in front of people increases my heartbeat and makes my hands tremble/sweat (which is making typing this a lil' harder). I know that messing up won't be the end of the world and that I might even forget this one day after the 10923810923 (I can't math) more days I'll live, but public speaking and death will always be my greatest fears.
My inner self realizes that this is a good opportunity to grow as not only a student but also a scientific communicator and that I can do well as long as I practice enough. My inner self also realizes I definitely should've started this during spring break, "rip". I am so impressed by my fellow classmates who presented yesterday, because not only was there a 7.05 exam, but we also didn't have any precedent on how these go. I will most likely be setting up an appointment with the BE Comm Lab for help.
I mentioned in my previous blog post that I would fix my homework as soon as I got it back to aid in crafting the final product for this module (the research article), but alas, that kind-of, sort-of (meaning very) did not happen. I did fix a few points here and there and took notes on things to change, but didn't actually make the changes right after getting the homework back. Present-Jocelyn really wants to kick Past-Jocelyn's butt right now. But people do say, "third time's the charm", so maybe Future-Jocelyn won't feel this way about me right now when Module 3 starts!!






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog Post #2

Edit 4/18 (Forgot to put my name): Justin Liu Originally published 4/8 The Journal Club assignment marked my first time truly understanding a published journal article. Sure, previous UROP positions had required me to get some background information on the project by scanning a few papers. However, all I really did for those was scan the introduction and figures and then have my supervisor actually explain it to me. Thus, I was very unsure of what to expect for this presentation. Will other people care about my presentation? Will I be interested in the material? Will I even be able to understand it? It turns out that the answer to the second and third questions was yes, but I can't exactly speak for the first question. While working on creating the presentation, the most surprising thing was how much of the authors' data that I had to cut out. I felt very reluctant to leave out charts and data that I understood, and it took a lot of mental gymnastics to convince myself tha
Read more

The Journey of A Revision Begins With Office Hours

First major assignment of 20.109 is done, locked in the books. Looking back at it, the entire process from the initial draft to the revisions that were made couldn't have been possible without the availability of the staff and the time spent in office hours.  To the Comm Lab Fellows, thank you for meeting with us at a day's notice. For sitting down and break our abstract apart. For showing us what worked well and what didn't. For helping our abstract go from needs improvement to significantly improved. To Leslie, thank you for bearing with the hundreds of emails we sent your way. For patiently replying to us anytime and every time we needed tips and suggestions. For spending hours in office hours before the first draft was due. For meeting to go over last minute questions before the revision was due.  And to my lab partner, Tooba, thanks for sitting with me late into the night to tear apart our on work. For working with me to identify our weakness and create a s
Read more

I don't hate speaking, just the preparation

Despite my presentation feeling like a dumpster fire, speaking to others about anything, especially when you should technically know more about the subject than the audience, can be pretty fun. Journal club was no exception. However, as fun as the act of presenting is, writing it can be a bit more unappealing and definitely takes a lot more motivation. Reading a paper and being tasked with presenting its most important contents in only a few minutes really forced me to look at what the audience could best take away from the paper, rather than what the authors might have specifically thought to be most important. Seeing shortcomings in the paper, like poorly organized figures or unexplained jargon, now affected me and my future audience and only made me angrier than usual. But as much as a pain as that can be, it's pretty fun to be able to say a paper written by people with far better credentials than yourself isn't the best.  Finally, I thought I had learned from my mistakes
Read more