Lately I have been reading a lot of articles for my master thesis project. I don’t know about you, but after a week of literature review I am not able to remember what each of the articles were about or if they had any relevant piece of information. That’s why I developed my “keep track of what you read” system. 

STEP 1 - organize your folders

Create a subfolder inside your project folder and give it a catchy name. I call mine “articles”, nice, huh? Then create a subfolder inside that folder and call it “to_read”. Now, every time you get a new article, you will put it into the “to_read” folder.

STEP 2 - give your PDFs a nice name

The default file name when you download an article is something ugly like “1-s2.0-S0140674607612379-main.pdf”. Change this for something that will allow you identify the article easily. I try to stick to the system “first_author (year)”.

STEP 3 - use the cloud

I have all my stuff stored in Dropbox or Google Drive. It’s the best if you are going to work from more than one device as it will keep your stuff synced and always accesible.

STEP 4 - create a reading log

My master thesis project is about auditory verbal hallucinations, language, and dynamic causal modelling, so I have to read articles about these three topics. To keep track of what I’m reading, I created an excel document in Google Drive with 3 different spread sheets, one for each of the topics. Now, every time I start reading an article, I open this document, I go to the spread sheet that fits, and I write down its title. 

STEP 5 - read the article and take notes

I am a color coder, so I highlight the articles as I read them. Something interesting? Yellow. Hypotheses? Green. Relevant results? Blue. Then I take some notes of the important stuff, either in my research notebook or in a Word document, depends on my mood. Once you are done reading, move the article from the “to_read” subfolder to the main “articles” folder. At this step, you could also consider to use a reference manager like Mendeley or EndNote, but that’s a topic for another time.

STEP 6 - update the reading log

Now write in your log a couple of sentences (or more!) about the article you just read, just to jog your memory in the future. You can also copy some quotes you think will be usefull in the future or references to other articles cited in the text that you might want to check later. It’s up to you.

STEP 7 - hyperlink

If you have everything stored in the cloud, you can add hyperlinks from your reading log to the articles and/or to the notes you took on them. If you took notes on a paper notebook, write down which notebook it is and the page number where you can find those notes (numbering the pages of your notebook is a must!).

Now, remember that everybody works differently and this is only the system I use, but I strongly recommend keeping a reading log. I might seem like an overkill when you only have to read a couple of articles for class, but you’ll be gratefull for it when you have to use something you know you have read about… and you can’t remember where you read it.

#kirk is secretly a beastie boys groupie

Comic-Con 2016 Star Portraits: Day #3

Be careful, Diana. They do not deserve you.

Wonder Woman (2017)

What I do is not up to you.

“Man humans are lame why don’t we have like wings/horns/etc”

Humans can’t even handle having different skin colors how well do you really think that would go

Parveen Sadiq being interviewed by Assed Baig for Channel 4 News regarding Prime Minister David Cameron’s English language policy. The screenshots are by Buzzfeed.

Buzzfeed article – Channel 4 News YouTube video

So, uh, it looks like Taylor Swift might be dating Tom Hiddleston.

It is apparently a thing.

Good luck with your dashboards, Tumblr.

“and I’m coming for him…” (via 1mmunity) Relevant

I may never have another chance like this, so I must ask…

After watching Civil War I thought of making crack comics. All the love goes to @georgygirl-247 because our epic conversations resulted into this :)))) This can be considered a (Cracky) prequel to my Terror in Avengers Tower Comic.

For @fizzsup while she waits for Part 2 of my horror stony comic. I love her! Ironman already wore a wedding veil from Comics Canon (Natasha Stark Earth 3940) 

For @fizzsup while she waits for Part 2 of my horror stony comic. I love her! Ironman already wore a wedding veil from Comics Canon (Natasha Stark Earth 3940) 

“Writing Your Thesis” Artist: Jorge Cham / www.phdcomics.com

We know it can be intimidating to talk to them but professors are incredible people with many accomplishments and passions. They’re there to help you, they’re happy to share their knowledge and experience, and honestly, they’re included in your tuition to act as resources for your goals and ambitions.  So, here are some tips because you deserve to connect with some amazing people.  1) Go to their office hours. NOW.  Professors are often sitting alone during their office hours this early on in the year.  Hurray! That means more room for you to sweep in and introduce yourself as not only a dedicated student, but also as a generally cool person to know and talk to.   2) Be transparent.  Let them know where you’re at in your life.  Talk about your interests, your ambitions, your strengths and weaknesses.  You’ve decided to put yourself out there on their radar, now be open about the person you are.  They will appreciate it one way or the other and will be able to get a better sense of how they can best help you out.  3) Take an interest in their work. Most professors have a plethora of publications and research you can access through your university database or online.  Read up on their interests and bring them up in conversation. Let them know you’ve done your homework and that you’ve taken some extra time to get to know them better. 4) See them as real people.  When it comes to professors, we usually only see them for the jobs they fill.  It’s easy to forget that they’re real people too! Remember they’re human, just like you, and speak to them on a professional yet personable level.   5) Follow up. Like any other, it takes time, care, and effort to maintain a good relationship with your professor.  Check in from time to time to let them know how you’re doing and to see how they’re doing too.  Coming from a place of genuineness, you’ll build a special trust and credibility as both a student and a person.