Writer's Lab: Constructing effective outlines using assertive language

Today, I have the pleasure of hosting Nicole K.S. Barker in the writers' lab. Nicole is a Ph.D. student at Laval University in Québec, Canada, working with Ducks Unlimited Canada and the Boreal Avian Modelling Project. While technically a Forestry student, she classifies her research as "applied ecological modelling". 

Within her Ph.D. she is investigating various methods for quantifying patterns in waterfowl populations over space in time. 
Alongside her research, she continually searches for ways to improve her writing, productivity, and R programming skills, and has found social media to be instrumental in this regard. You can read more about Nicole on her blog or Twitter. 

Most writers start with an outline. And if they don’t, they should.

Outlines help you think through your topic. They help you identify the thread of your story - the message you’ll carry through from start to finish. Nothing is more frustrating than writing a full introduction to your paper only to discover that it doesn’t mesh well with your results or discussion once you get to those sections. As you fill in the finer details of your outline, you can revise the order of sentences (or even paragraphs) more fluidly than if you were writing in paragraph format.

I’ve been using outlines to guide my writing since the beginning of my academic studies, and I've used basically the same format the whole time. However, I recently revised my outline format following a tip from one of my writing group members. I’ve already found it useful, so I wanted to share it.

Étienne suggests that instead of using an outline to simply describe the content of each paragraph, we should use assertive statements. That is, summarize the main message or conclusion of each paragraph in one sentence or phrase. In this way, the story of the paper is apparent within the outline before we’ve even started writing the full content.

These outlines are harder to write, because they require you to really think through what you are trying to say. (You might find that this style works best for a second outline once you’ve got the very rough ideas down.) However, the assertive outline makes it easier to identify problems with flow between paragraphs, or areas where your story becomes inconsistent. Because the ideas are still in outline format, it’s easy to rearrange or adjust as necessary.

Give it a try and let Eva or me know how it went for you.

As an example, the introduction and discussion from a hypothetical paper about visualizing music with paint as a means to understand hearing impairment.

Old

Introduction:

• Broad opening statement – hearing impairment
• Previous research 1 – cochlear implants
• Previous research 2 – visualizing sound
• Our study and objectives – effect of music on paint

Discussion

• Summary of results
• Relation to previous research – other attempts to visualize sound
• Relation to previous research – other attempts to understand cochlear implants
• Conclusions and implications for hearing impairment

New

Introduction:

• XXX number of people experiencing hearing impairment in one form or another
• Cochlear implants have substantially improved hearing in XXX people since 19XX
• In an effort to understand effects of cochlear implants, researchers have attempted to visualize sound using a variety of methods.
• We applied a novel technique to visually represent sound using paint and multiple styles of music.

Discussion

• We found that different musical styles showed distinct patterns in the corresponding paint splatters.
• Our research corroborates previous results that visual representations of sound display meaningful differences.
• The differences between paint splatters from Mozart and those from Metallica help explain why those with cochlear implants prefer music with a strong beat.
• Our results provide a novel means to make sound relatable for those with hearing impairments.

Prolonging the service life of existing reinforced concrete slab bridges

I recently presented a paper at the 1st International Conference on Concrete Sustainability in Tokyo, Japan. The next edition will be in Madrid, in 2016.

The abstract of my paper is:

A large number of existing reinforced concrete slab bridges are found to be insufficient for shear when calculated according to the governing codes. Seeking improved methods, for example, based on new experimental evidence, to assess the residual shear capacity and prolonging their service life can avoid large economic, environmental and social costs. Experimental results are combined with Monte Carlo simulations to quantify the increase in shear capacity in slabs as a result of transverse load redistribution. As a result, a larger number of slab bridges can remain in service.

You can find the slides here:

Prolonging the service life of existing reinforced concrete slab bridges from Eva Lantsoght

Celebrate Milestones in Graduate School

Today's post is a guest post by Nathan L. Vanderford. Nathan has a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Biotechnology, a PhD in Biochemistry, and an MBA with an operations management focus. He is an administrator, researcher, educator, consultant, writer/editor, and entrepreneur. He is the founder of Integrative Academic Solutions, which aims to help individuals integrate multiple disciplines to achieve innovative job performance. He is also the founder/editor of The Daily PhD, a newspaper dedicated to graduate school issues and PhD career paths. Lastly, he is the founder/editor of What Are All The PhDs?, which is dedicated to putting a personal spin on highlighting all possible career paths for PhDs.

Earning a PhD is an extraordinary rewarding and worthwhile experience. With that said, however, graduate school can be an emotional roller coaster. There are a multitude of issues that contribute to this emotional roller coaster called graduate school and oftentimes many of the details of the issues are person-specific. Several issues are also common among all graduate students. For example, you have to deal with tough classes while you balance your research and delicate inter-personal relationships – such as those with your mentor, dissertation committee, labmates, and your student colleagues. You can also struggle to figure out where your general personal life fits into the graduate school equation.

If you’re like me, and many other graduate students I knew, you have to find ways to get through some of the ups and downs of graduate school as best you can. You can come up with all types of creative ways to do this and one that I suggest is to establish milestones that you can celebrate. And by celebrate, I mean really celebrate because you’ll need a chance to de-stress and unwind. And, celebrate with your friends as they reach their milestones too. Finding reasons to party, I mean celebrate, will help you get through graduate school!

My Top Graduate School Milestones (listed chronologically as they happened and not necessarily in order of most importance)
* Getting accepted into graduate school
* Finishing my coursework
* Passing my qualifying exam
* Getting manuscripts written, submitted, and accepted
* Getting approved to write my dissertation
* Getting job offers and having a job (postdoc position) secured before I defended
* Successfully defending
* Leaving the lab for the last time before starting my postdoc

So, if you’re like me, whatever your milestones are in graduate school, you’ll likely have an opportunity to celebrate quite often. Take these opportunities to reflect on a job well done and to re-focus on finishing what you’ve started.

What are your milestones? Do you have creative/innovative ways to pass the time in graduate school? Do you have unique ways to de-stress? If so, we’d love to hear from you.

Writers' Lab: A Quick Tip for Proofreading

When I was proofreading my dissertation, I felt as if I could constantly fall asleep (every now and then, I literally feel asleep above my print). I experienced the editing and proofreading stages, especially towards the end, as incredibly tedious and boring.

No coffee (even though by that time I was more or less caffeine-free), loud music or other stimulants seemed to help me get through this terrible stage of going over the same sentences for the umptieth time.
I got distracted the entire time, fiddling around with my smartphone, staring out of the window, catching up with colleagues, taking on other tasks - you name it, anything to avoid the dreaded proofreading stage was a reason for escape.

And then I remembered how I used to study courses that had a lot of text in them. Most courses forced me to sit down and take notes, work my way through exercises and basically needed me to sit behind my desk.

But for courses with a lot of text, I used a different strategy. And I discovered that this strategy worked very well for proofreading my thesis as well, and for adding those little edits here and there in the final stages.

Here is what I did:

I walked up and down while holding the text in my hands (and reading it).

Getting some movement helped to get my concentration back together, and it distracted me from wanting to do any other activity that might distract me. While walking around, I didn't feel like picking up my smartphone, for example. I felt more energized, focused and with adding this little bit of activity, I also felt less like a constantly-sitting-lazy-bag.

If you struggle to stay awake to study a text-heavy course, or you need to proofread your dissertation for the twentieth time, then consider taking your printed copy for a walk up and down the hallway. Your concentration might thank you!

Have you tried pacing up and down while reading/studying.proofreading/editing? How is your experience?

Silver Linings: Creativity and Meditation

Flickr image under CC license by HaPe_Gera

I've frequently written here on the benefits of meditation for your brain and your heart, how you can make meditation a habit and my personal explorations.

In my opinion, meditation is the necessary exercise for your mind, just like you would work out your body, and a must for all knowledge workers such as researchers.

When I stumbled upon this heartfelt speech of David Lynch on what meditation means to his life, and his creativity, it resonated with how I feel much clearer in thinking thanks to meditation.

You can watch his speech here:

Presentation from ACI Fall Convention 2011

For those ACI members out there, I recently discovered that my lecture in the session on "Recent Developments in Reinforced Concrete Slab Analysis, Design and Serviceability" is available online.

If you're a student in structural engineering, you should consider becoming an ACI student member. It's free, and gives you access to the archives of the publications, presentations, and some additional documents.

Hope you enjoy watching the presentation, and, as always, feel free to get in touch with me when you have more questions!

Writers' Lab: The final months of the dissertation

"The final months of a PhD are incredibly messy," says James Clewett - and I couldn't agree more.
Unless you are doing your PhD in your home country and will roll into a faculty position naturally at your institution (there are rumors some people still get that opportunity), you will be searching for a job, moving out of your place, boxing up your stuff again and arranging long-distance moving.

I wasn't quite expecting it all to be so messy, but in between getting the thesis to the printer, filling out HR forms for my next job, attending 7 conferences to show the world the results of my research, finding babysits for my cat, ending all insurance and utilities contracts I had in the Netherlands and buying plane tickets, I reached a moment where I felt massive overwhelm.

The only piece of advice that I have to offer you, and what saved my sanity through this, is to just keep your head clear, plan realistically, allow enough time for sleep and recovery and just try to do your best without straining yourself out of bounds.

If you need to move away after your PhD and find another job, just be prepared for a messy period of time. It seems to be part of the rite of passage.

You can watch the interview with James Clewett below - I'm so grateful he spoke up about the messiness of the final months of the dissertation.