Hargreaves lab
Resources for students trying to write, analyze data, make presentations etc.
Writing
Hargreaves lab guide - writing 1st drafts
Other helpful resources:
Process of writing (Morrison guide to the process)
Writing tips including common errors to avoid (Tischler tips, more style oriented)
If you really want to up your writing game, our lab uses the wonderful book: Writing Science in Plain English by Anne Greene
Guide to committee meetings
What you need to know re the written document, presentation, and paperwork
Presentations
Figure making
Figure making is an art. The best figures get across a clear message with minimal effort from the reader, while enabling deeper examination by keen readers. Figure also signal to your readers how much effort and attention to detail you put into your work.
For an excellent reference see: Show me the Numbers by Stephen Few
Some detailed advice is in the writing guide too
Data management, coding & statistics in R
Projects can live or die by how easy it is to resurrect the R code. To ensure your code is a resource rather than a graveyard, please follow the lab R guidelines. This also goes over the most common statistical workflow in the lab.
To get you started, here is a R template (here as PDF, or email me for .R version)
For specific example scripts and analyses check out the archived code from recent projects
Great concise overview of statistical analyses in R (Schluter R tips)
Poster making
Cardinal rules:
1) big short plain-language title so the point of your poster is obvious before people get close enough to read it.
2) less is more - focus your poster on one, maybe two results. Its not a paper. If there is text you can cut (words, points, sections), cut it.
3) light background (dark backgrounds waste a lot of ink).
Great summary of what's wrong with poster sessions + interesting alternate template:
Responding to reviewers
Undergrad independent projects in the Hargreaves lab include two submissions for the final paper; an initial submission, which gets marked as if being reviewed for a scientific journal, then a second revised submission accompanied by a response-to-reviewers letter, just as in the 'real' peer-review process. Tips for writing an effective response letter (for real & for independent projects): (Hargreaves lab BSc research paper instructions)
Also see article re responding to reviewers (Stafford Noble 2017)
