Yeah, this past week got pretty nuts at work/school… While I’m not taking classes, per se, I’m still required to get a few things done…namely, my Prelim… At this rate, I need to have the 8-page treatment done by mid-October so it can be approved before doing the 25-page version for mid-November. After it’s approved, I can do my Oral Defense in early/mid-December and life will be good. I chatted with Dr. Macarthur earlier in the week about where I stand thus far and I think I’m in decent shape, but there’s a lot of research to do.
This process is different from a more classical undergrad “research paper” in that there’s a lot more critical thinking involved. You have to determine whether your science is sound, whether there is evidence to support the ideas you’re putting forward, and whether they’re even do-able experiments. At Truman, all I had to do was look up a subject and write about it – there wasn’t very much “opinion” needed… Now, theoretically, my opinion matters and I have to defend it on paper…and then to five professors… So yeah, while 8 pages doesn’t sound all that hard, there’s a lot of thought that goes into it…that I need to really get started on.
That, and I’ve got two lectures to deliver, one on September 7th and one on September 10th…both on alcohol (I know…no first-hand experience there, right?). I’ve got last year’s PowerPoint presentations to start from, but I’ve still got to update them a bit and learn the material before the 7th. I think I’ve got a pretty good handle on the science that goes into it, but some refreshing would be useful…
On top of both those things, Dr. Macarthur wants me to start putting together all my data from the last year (plus a bit more…) so it can be published. I’ve got some decent data, but there’s a little more I’d like to get… I really need to get started on the Prelim, though, so I’ll likely shut down all experiments for a few weeks while I get started, then fire them back up toward the end of September. That way, I can do additions to my Prelim (’cause it’ll already be pretty far along) and I won’t have lectures to accomplish anymore… If all goes well, I should be able to get a paper done for publication by the end of the year, and that’d be sweet to get a paper out already, ’cause I’ve still got a few years left…
Anyone else busy already? The school year has barely started!!
Shenanigans, I tell you…
“Oral Defense” sounds like a mouthwash.
Thank goodness I’m still writing “easy” papers at Truman. 😉
Hehehe…I guess I should have been a bit more specific…”Easy science papers” is more what I was getting at… For Physical Chemistry, for example, we had to write an ACS-style paper about our experiments, which mostly came directly out of the book and we only needed, like, 5 citations from other papers on the subject. We did something similar for Biochem, but that was on a bit bigger scale. It was never on something we were actually going to attempt to do… So, in that regard, much easier… I never wrote papers so social science, language, etc…and I know those can get pretty long… I don’t even want to think about writing Philosophy papers…
Either way, mouthwash is a good thing… 😛