It’s that time of year: I am writing a Junior Proposal as a molecular biology major. There are a few things I found about this experience that have humbled me very deeply. I obviously did not expect a cakewalk. I think it’s a good time for me to let juniors know; it’s not necessarily a difficult experience, but it’s strangely timed. The deadlines (at least for my major) are right in the middle of a somewhat hectic time between exams and the long stretch of spring semester post-spring break. Many of my peers (including myself) have been doing experiments for a while now, and working on the paper feels like coming up for air from a very deep lair at the bottom of the ocean. It can be very disorienting. The issue is that it requires a different way of thinking than when you’re in the midst of experimentation.
When I’m experimenting, the questions going through my head are: what will these results mean, where could this go wrong, what backups do I have, and did I turn off the gel electrophoresis machine. These things are quite narrow-minded in terms of simply discussing the present moment of my research. The Junior Proposal pulled me out of that and made me consider the past of my research–preliminary data that led to my question–and the future of it–my research plan for my senior thesis. Amidst all the tubes and pipetting, it had been quite some time since I properly engaged with those aspects of my research, which is why transitioning to my JP was a bit disorienting. This is a frequently heard question at dinner from my peers, “I am not sure I even know what I am doing.”
It’s in there buried somewhere and just requires sharpening.
The first step I took was to communicate with my Ph.D. mentor and my PI. The second part is important. Often, as undergrads, we feel comfortable speaking to our Ph.D. mentors, but our PI is ultimately the final say on our projects, and we may be more hesitant to reach out to them. Reaching out helped me understand my project. Do not be afraid to ask them questions (and no, they won’t say what has this student been doing all this time in the lab if your question is an elementary one). It helped me clarify missing bits and pieces and truly understand what I’m doing. This was also a good time for me to double check with my PI the impact of my research on the real-world, or what they hope my research will illuminate in the field because they had more expansive knowledge on what’s missing in the field than I did.
Next step, reading papers. It’s tedious, but it’s how your Ph.D. mentor and PI learned. You have to know your field to comment about it, which is essentially what your Junior Proposal does. It doesn’t just connect you across the time-scale of your own research (past and future) but also spatially out to the rest of your field. Reading papers is the best place to start, and it doesn’t have to be the most in-depth reading you’ve done in your life. JP is written during a very busy time for juniors (and junior year is all around a challenging year objectively), so if you can only manage a skim some days, it is not the end of the world. Skimming helped me get the main gist on busy days and highlight important things that I could then come back to in more depth later. It also helped keep my citations on track as I became more familiar with the information from many papers.
Finally, you will have many drafts–I definitely did–you will look at someone’s example (perhaps a previous student’s JP) for hours on end, and the lines will blur. I have quite a few iterations just writing it on my own and then I am still going to have several more iterations when my PI and supervisor read over it too, which leads into the next point: it’s important to have your PI and Ph.D. mentor review your proposal. I set up the deadlines they prefer for when I can hand in my drafts to them so they have enough time to give me the best feedback possible. I asked them for a date so I can set a deadline for myself and stay on top of things (as much as one can stay on top of things during this point of the semester).
Writing a JP is a good first step for a smoother senior thesis experience. Many seniors have informed me that writing their JP set them up well for their senior thesis. Many even ended up having quite a lot more written by certain points in senior year than expected because of the solid foundation the JP provided them. For all my molecular biology majors, good luck with our upcoming deadline (April 28th), and for the other disciplines, I hope this account resonated for you too.
— Haya Elamir, Natural Sciences Correspondent
