Question: What does the written part of your job involve?

Fiona Scott answered on 12 Mar 2019: last edited 12 Mar 2019 11:19 am

Every week I write up what I did during the week on one side of A4 as a nice summary for myself and my boss, and sometimes my experiments in more detail in my lab book. Every few months I collect all the experiments I’ve done over that time and write them up in a single document, in a format that’s ready to go in my thesis. I’ve also had to write a “first year” and “second year” report for the university which are short summaries of the work I’ve done so far to inform them I’m on track with my project.

There is also form filling, claiming expenses back for travel and work I’ve done for the university, e-mail writing and making presentations and writing proposals for new projects and presenting my research at conferences.

Most of that is typed. I also scribble away in my rough lab notebook and keep lots of to do lists. I don’t spend the majority of my time at my desk though. I do these things in between experiments.

I’m now at a stage in my project where I’m ready to write some scientific papers about my work for journals so I may be spending a bit more time writing in the near future! It’s all a juggling act.