Letting out a sigh of relief after pressing 'submit' on Stellar

Embarking on the journey to write the research article was incredibly daunting. I could barely read through a reputable, published paper without getting stuck on every paragraph. How in the world was I supposed to write my own research article?

And while this was certainly no easy feat and certainly time consuming (I think I spent 5 hours today simply editing the 17 pages I had), it came together much smoother than I had previous thought. The best thing I did for myself in writing this research article was starting early. I must admit, I cannot take full credit for this proactiveness. I had a very busy weekend planned for the last weekend before this Wednesday deadline, and had another paper due Thursday. Thus, I had to make sure I started early, and thank goodness that I did. I still ended up working up until the deadline, and even after I felt like I was done, I put in another two hours of editing, and this endless cycle continued on and on until I was blind to my own writing.

In terms of resources, I appreciated having bits and pieces of the research article assigned as homework throughout Module 2. This certainly helped with time management, and it was extremely helpful to get feedback on these elements. Additionally, I found the Comm Lab presentations to be especially helpful. Most notably, Dr. Bhargava mentioned that we could start writing the research article at whatever part we wanted. While a simple fact, this "advice" was extremely helpful for me to get started. I was having a hard time getting over the activation energy hump and actually starting, so I picked what felt the easiest: the methods section. Starting here helped me get into the research article writing mindset, and after having it done, it was much easier to get started on the other sections.

While the Comm Lab was extremely helpful, I did think the presentations were a day or week too early for my liking. By the time I got to writing the Research article, it had been over a week since the Comm Lab presentation, and the content wasn't as fresh in my mind. The results and discussion sections started to blend together, and I forgot what to include in each section of the hourglass structure in the introduction. I would have appreciated having these presentations slightly later, for it was difficult to make time for writing the research article when I had to finish the labs and homework assignments for Module 2 at the same time.

Beyond the Comm Lab, I found the office hours before the due date to be extremely helpful. Thank you to all the instructors for dedicating that time towards helping us with the assignment!

All in all, writing the research article was exhausting. It was an important learning experience, but I am excited to no longer have it looming on my mind. 

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