RS, 2.0 -- Welcome
RS, 2.0
Opportunistic
Reading
Annotated Bibliographies
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It’s the Bermuda Triangle of Education:
you, a computer, and
a writing assignment. Once
inside the
triangle, hope dissipates like steam.
Why
does the task of putting your thoughts together in a
way that
someone else will understand feel so much like getting dragged into a
foggy
mass of fluctuating magnetic forces from which is there is no likely
escape?
Like
the “No pain, No gain”
philosophy for lifting weights,
acquiring knowledge hurts: we start out small, get really sore, wonder
why
we’re doing this, get a little better, increase weight, increase reps,
and a
few months later, emerge stronger and sleeker.
Writing
is similar. The
best practice is to start
small, work through the
confusion, get
better, increase complexity and a few months later, emerge smarter. Yet little about that
first big writing
assignment seems “small.” Task
#1 is to
figure out where the beginning is by breaking the task down into
manageable parts. This
means understanding
that the end
product, the scientific paper, is one side of a three-part learning
triangle. First,
you have to learn the
science. Second,
you have to learn the
research skills. Third,
you have to
learn how to write the product which demonstrates the first two: the scientific research
paper.
How do you start the process of learning to write in the
sciences? We start at the beginnning with reading. To
read and write
effectively in the sciences is a transformative process.
Welcome
to the journey.
 Onto
Reading Science
2.0
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