Cats and the Comm Lab

If my Comm meeting starts at 11am, do I enter the meeting at 10:59, 11:00, or 11:01? The new question during zoom times. Does MIT time still exist during the zoom era? (asking for a friend…) Luckily my mom started talking to me, so the question was answered for me, 11:02. Zoom meeting with people I don't know, especially when the meeting is about them judging your work, usually causes a lot of anxiety. Yet the second I entered the meeting; I felt my worries float away. It may have been that he seemed like he had such a kind personality, it also didn't hurt that his cat was playing in the background.  Another awkward moment, taking notes. The camera shows you looking down so you could be doing anything. Are you on your phone, sewing, doing anything but paying attention, or are you writing notes? I usually just state that I'm writing notes so that there is no confusion. I've heard of too many friends get scolded for “looking on their phone” when they were just taking notes.

After a quick introduction, we started talking about how to create a methods section. We talked about how the methods section is a Goldilocks situation, not too detailed but not too vague. He chuckled at my confused face knowing my next question would be "How do I know what's too detailed and what's too vague?" He said practice makes perfect and read a lot of method's sections and you get the hang of it. We talked about boiling down our words, to look for words that don’t add anything. He mentioned that the comm lad had a FAQ page on the methods section, a page I heavily used when editing my methods section later. I would tell you everything we spoke about, but you should go to the Comm lab and find out for yourself! I can promise it will be one of the best things you do!

-          Giramnah


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