Go To A New Library

Depicts inside of East Pyne Courtyard in the snowfall
East Pyne Hall, former home to the Princeton University Library Collection

As someone who has spent more than a little time in libraries both here and back home, I can’t express how important libraries are. Oftentimes, we reduce our campus libraries to simple study spots, places we can go when we really just need to lock in. But, this is reductive. Libraries are connection points, providing the opportunity to connect and reconnect with friends and peers in the most serendipitous of ways. Additionally, our libraries are invitations to discovery. Each building stands as a testament to the physical accumulation of centuries of knowledge. From the official writings of American presidents to enzyme analyses of gene editing technology, Princeton’s libraries are practically bursting with knowledge to be uncovered.

When I talk to friends about studying at Princeton, one thing I always find myself circling back to is the beauty of our campus and community. This goes beyond the aesthetics of the buildings, but relates to the experiences that Princeton students can all share in. Our campus is one of connection and discovery, and I believe that there is no aspect that makes this as clear as our libraries. The Princeton University Library system claims the 9th largest collection of titles of any University in the country, so it’s no surprise that our campus is dotted with libraries. Of these numerous libraries though, many get overlooked. These overlooked libraries all represent unique opportunities that deserve to be noticed.

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Proven Tips on How to Read Scientific Literature

A printed article with yellow highlighting under a blue pen with the hands of the person reading and annotating.
A person reads and annotates an article printout. Photo Credit: Y.Arcurs/iStockphoto

In our undergraduate years, as we get involved with research and science, it can be incredibly overwhelming to read scientific literature. It’s easy to drown in hundreds of thousands of articles with fancy-sounding titles, pages and pages of complex writings, and dozens of figures that you have no idea what they mean. However, reading scientific literature is a necessary skill to have, and you must be able to understand what scientists know, and what they don’t. 

Therefore, I’ve created a list of tips and advice to tackle scientific literature as an undergraduate. Follow my advice, and you’re on your way to impress your supervisors with your knowledge, and create a nuanced understanding of where your research lies within the body of knowledge that scientists have been cultivating!

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Diving into the “Scholarly Conversation” and Other Tips on Academic Writing

A blank Google Docs document.
A blank Google Docs file, with academic writing potential as of yet unrealized.

Every student at Princeton lives their own unique experience, but if there’s one thing all Princeton students have in common, it’s that we all need to know how to write academically. The only required class for all Princeton students, first-year writing seminar, is a rite of passage. Later on, students of nearly every single major must complete independent work, writing their junior papers and senior theses; when writing these, knowing how to effectively communicate your findings is an essential skill. Here, I’ll talk about some strategies for getting a handle on academic writing, which I hope you’ll find useful!

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A Guide to JP-Writing in the Humanities

Books in Library
Finding the right sources within a literary field is a key part of all independent work. Photo credit: Olena Bohovyk.

Writing a Junior Paper (or two, depending on your major) can be a stressful process. But it does not have to be that way. Below are some strategies to help you minimize JP-induced stress and streamline your research process. 

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Mystery Writers in Research Labs: How to Analyze Your Data

The image is to depict a study corner in the Trustee Reading Room to add the feel of a study session to the post since it is about analyzing data.
Trustee Reading Room, Firestone Library. Photo credit: Matt Raspanti.

“So what does this data mean?” My professor asked, looking at me expectantly. What does the data mean? “What does this data tell you about the cancer cells?” If he thought rephrasing it made it any better, it didn’t. I am not quite sure what I said to save face (and frankly, I really do not want to remember), but I must have said something because my professor just nodded. “When you look at your data, I want you to create a story. It may be a mystery, but then you’d be providing a certain set of clues.” 

It is very easy to get caught up in generating data, especially if the data is particularly tricky and you’re concerned about making sure it looks right, generating the right graphs, having the right axes, numbers and titles. It can be a headache. By the time the graphs are done, I would rather not look at it anymore or think too hard about the numbers. However, as lab reports and analysis questions stack up for our classes, it becomes prudent to know how to analyze these graphs. While I am not a seasoned veteran, I have a few tips that helped me approach these types of situations.

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Surf’s Up: A Guide to Internet Surfing, and other Assorted Browsing Research Skills

This image depicts a Google search of "What is research," which symbolizes the purpose of this post—i.e. figuring out how to research online.
What is research? Perhaps we can ask the Internet…

If you’re anything like me, you first thought that “research” essentially amounted to surfing the Internet. Back in the glory days of middle school, “research” meant the rewarded privilege of getting to use the laptop carts, productively using class time on googling information about our various project topics (and definitely not secretly playing games). Now, as the mature, worldly college student you now are, perhaps you think you know better. “True” academic research, the clever reader now knowingly tells themselves, is historians dusting through archival documents and scientists mixing frothy chemicals in the lab. 

Yet there’s a missing part here: a crucial element that takes us back to our elementary and middle days of excited googling. To make any significant intellectual contribution to any field, one first has to understand the current state of knowledge in that same field. To borrow the term favored by the Writing Program, we need to understand the scholarly conversation. How do we know if we’re making a contribution to something, if we don’t understand what that something is? Understanding the current state of research in a given field is a crucially important skill—really, a prerequisite—for conducting your own effective research in that field. 

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Research Communication and Community: Reflecting on the Princeton Correspondents for Undergraduate Research

Melissa Parnagian; Stacey Huang; Alec Getraer

Each month in the Office of Undergraduate Research newsletter, we highlight recent posts by Princeton Correspondents on Undergraduate Research (PCUR) authors. This month, we are looking back on ten years of PCUR as we celebrate the tenth anniversary of OUR.

PCUR began the same year as OUR – with the first posts published in September 2014. We invited PCUR alums to share their perspective on their time as a correspondent, including two who were part of the very first PCUR cohort. Read on to learn about how PCUR serves individual correspondents and the larger Princeton community alike, and if this all sounds like something you’d like to be a part of, Princeton first-years through juniors are encouraged to apply here to join PCUR next fall. 

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A Guide to Citations

Whether writing a paper or providing a presentation, you will often find yourself relying on the completed work of others to synthesize information about a subject. An essential part of using these outside sources is to give their owners rightful credit in your references! Read some tips below on making citations easier. 

Someone reading an article they would reference if they were doing research on the topic
Citations can be the most dreaded section of your writing. Finish your references with ease using this guide! 
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Getting it Done: Balancing your JP with a Full Course Load

A laptop with a notebook and pen set aside from a coffee mug.

While it may feel like the semester has only just begun, classes are in full swing and, already, junior paper (JP) deadlines are fast approaching. For many majors, the spring semester is where the bulk of the JP work actually takes place. Whether that means writing thousands of words, crunching monstrously large datasets, or debugging hundreds of lines of code, I think we all can agree that a JP draft is better not left to the last minute. 

One of the biggest challenges all Princeton students face with independent work, however, is figuring out where they can even find the time to start. With a full course load, weekly assignments, and a myriad of extracurricular obligations, just when exactly is a student to work on their JP? Read on for three tips on how you can fit your JP into a hectic schedule. With the right daily habits, supports, and mindset, you may even find that you enjoy the process more than the final product. 

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Research and Foreign Languages

One of the major differences between the A.B. and B.S.E. courses of study at Princeton is that A.B. students are required to take (or test out of) at least four semesters of a language class. Studying a foreign language is, therefore, an essential part of studying the humanities at Princeton. There are many good reasons for studying a foreign language (besides simply needing to fulfill the language requirement)— perhaps you want to live or study in a different country, you might envision some professional advantages from knowing a foreign language, or you simply see studying languages as a new way to connect with others. Many Princeton alumni have successfully put their language skills to use in these sorts of pursuits. I’d like to offer another reason in addition to these: studying a foreign language at Princeton can prepare you to do exceptional research. 

Picture shows a page from an Arabic-Latin dictionary

A page from an Arabic-Latin dictionary

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