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How to Read an Academic/Research Paper

The main sections are: 

Abstract: a general overview of the paper’s content. It’s good to start here first, to sort of “seed” the ideas and concepts of the paper into your head.

Introduction: the general overview and setting of the paper. Sometimes you’ll find brief descriptions of key concepts or phrases

Methods: Read at the end, the technical jargon might be too heavy to for your to read this first.

Results:

Conclusion/Interpretation/Discussion: the hypothesis is either accepted or rejected. Reading the conclusion can help you decide if you want to spend your time reading the paper or not if you are looking for a specific method of doing something.

References: Read to familiarize yourself with the common titles, sources, and theories. 

Tip: Read the  Intro, and conclusion before you read the rest of the paper, its the fastest way of knowing what’s in the paper. 

Look out for the keywords key contribution and significant. 

Step by Step instructions: 

 Read Intro and Conclusion

 Identify the big question - what is this paper about?

Summarize the background in five sentences - why is this research important?

Identify specific questions - What exactly are the authors trying to answer with their research. 

Read methods

Read results and write down a sentence to summarize the result of each experiment. 

How do the results answer the specific question?

Read the conclusion section - Do the authors think that the results answered the big question?

Now read the abstract - did it match what happened?

Sources: 

https://medium.com/ai-saturdays/how-to-read-academic-papers-without-freaking-out-3f7ef43a070f

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-raff/how-to-read-and-understand-a-scientific-paper_b_5501628.html

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so I got into grad school today with my shitty 2.8 gpa and the moral of the story is reblog those good luck posts for the love of god

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Embrace the suck.

“Embrace the suck. You have to deal with it, face it, and will yourself to preserve and rise. You will make it through. Just because they can’t see your potential or don’t share your vision, just because you’re uncertain or afraid, that doesn’t disqualify you. Just because the sky is cloudy doesn’t mean there’s no sun. Plan, study, prepare yourself.”

Brendon Burchard; High performance habits.

I’ve been facing a lot of challenges for the past few weeks that sometimes made me want to give up. But I realize that I’ve come this far to not only come this far. I’ve sacrificed too much to give up now. I just can’t.

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One of my earliest memories was just barely reaching the keys of my parents’ upright piano, banging and singing along in my tiny three-year-old voice. (I wish this was followed with “they signed me up for lessons” and not “they sold the piano within a couple of years” but oh well.)

At seven years old, I joined a community choir, and at the age of 12 I finally fulfilled my lifelong dream of joining band. Since then music has grown to be the focus of my life, and my chosen career. I simply can’t see myself ever stopping.

Hey, if you have the time and energy to do so, please reblog this and add why you chose to study/participate in music in any capacity. It’s not for a project or anything, I just like to hear these stories.

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I have my conducting final in like five hours and I have not slept. 7/8 and changing meters here we fucking go

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I managed to pass my sophomore review, so the rest of finals week can suck it

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My practicing is making me feel much better about my sophomore review... except my chops still suck, but hopefully continuous practice will help with that.

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I have three papers, a repertoire project, and all of my notes to be turned in later today. It is 3am.

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Ludwig Milde, you’re gonna kill me

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Practicing Naked

Pro: not sweating to death in the practice room

Cons: negative body image, mirrors, windows, doors without locks

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Saw a tweet today that I fucking loved. I’m more than just a trans guy. Being trans has never been, nor will it ever be my entire identity. It is a tiny facet about myself that does little to alter the overall picture; a goofy, anxiety ridden kid that loves retro video games and belts showtunes and 80s pop alone in his apartment; the guy that tries too damn hard to do literally everything, even if it kills him; the grown-ass man that nearly cries with joy when he spots cute animals or sees a wedding on TV (despite never wanting a big wedding for himself). The one who loves more fiercely than he should, and gives more chances than are deserved because he just wants to see the good in everyone.

I am not just trans. I am so, so much more.

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Making myself practice despite how badly I want to sleep (I only got about 4 hours last night because logic). I’m definitely at a point where I have more going on than I have time for, realistically speaking, but I know I’ll make it somehow.

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Doing some reed work today; new ones are pretty rough but some scraping and breaking in will hopefully do them some good. (The red and gold is a Gryffindor-themed reed from Bocal Majority my professor gave me, that has been my standby so far this semester)

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Happy Things

In my trombone lesson this week, I was playing through one of the potential solos my professor had given me the previous week, and she stopped me halfway through to tell me “I think this is too easy for you”. This is only my third semester in lessons, and some of the things she gave me were things she would assign to trombone major freshmen, who would’ve been playing six or seven years by that point. To say I was proud of myself was an understatement; I’ve always done my best to take my secondary lessons super seriously, and seeing such improvement is really encouraging. Now that I’ve switched to a BA in Music, I’ll even have time to join the trombone choir next semester- which was a goal I had when I started lessons last year!

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“Your speech can be about anything you want-“

*cracks knuckles* time to remind them why music majors don’t socialize and we’re dead inside

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They’ve managed to wait until after school started to clean out the practice rooms... there’s a floor waxing machine outside my favorite room. There are timpani in the hallway. It is chaos. Chaos does not mean I don’t have to practice, though.

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I’ve been waking up at 6am every day so far this semester... not gonna lie, I kinda like it now that I’m used to it. I don’t necessarily get out of bed immediately at 6, but I take a good half hour to get to sleep usually so once that alarm wakes me up I’m not in danger of oversleeping. Sometimes I take extra time to lie in bed and ease myself awake. The best part is getting to just slowly adjust to the waking world rather than rolling out of bed 15 minutes before class starts. On good days I can shower and cook a nice breakfast and still have time to catch up on homework if I need to. And knowing that I’ll have that time is really nice when I come home exhausted after a 12-14 hour day.

The key is knowing how much sleep you need- I’ve found 6 or 7 hours is plenty for me to be able to function. Too much more than that makes me groggy, and less makes me incredibly sleepy. But right now I’ve gotten about 6 1/2 hours of sleep, and after easing myself awake I’m pretty much ready to go for the day.