Growing up, I was what you could call a “bookworm.” While I didn’t always have my head stuck in a book, it was quite obvious in school that I liked to read for fun. Throughout middle school, I spent lunch in the library, spent every Tuesday at a book club run by the school librarian, and consumed a lot of online literature as well (Yes, I am referring to fanfiction! There is no shame!)
I, like many others, fell into the trap of academic reading – assigned readings for English class or AP classes that drained the fun out of reading. My genre of preference was fantasy, fiction, and a little bit of romance. I liked watching cartoons so any plotlines that imitated it in any form were appealing to my young mind. However, I heavily disliked nonfiction, or any sort of novel without a semblance of any elements of the plot, including rising action, falling action, and climax. This meant that non-fiction novels were boring. So as I progressed through high school, I picked up fewer and fewer books. I only really read for class and to learn. In high school, I first encountered an academic paper for the first time.
I remember feeling so overwhelmed by all the figures (I hadn’t encountered pictures in literature for a long time!), numbers, and long, unfamiliar words. At the time, I didn’t realize that I would pursue a job in academia! But had I known, I probably would have called myself very ambitious and a bit delusional. If you had told me that I would be reading 3 academic papers in full and annotating all of them in one week, my jaw would have dropped in disbelief.
But, that is what I spent the past week doing. Reading and annotating, making sure I understood the figures, and attempting to paraphrase or summarize the information in a more digestible manner. My first paper was for a group presentation, the other for my molecular genetics class, and the last one for my Honors project. After hitting all of these papers in one go, I can say I definitely have developed some sort of confidence regarding academic papers. I used to shy away from academic papers much less annotate them. So to rip off the bandaid in one go is freeing to say the least. Even if the paper may be hard to read and the topic may be something I’ve never encountered, I believe that there is nothing that cannot be looked up and defined.
I realize that if I am going to work in the field of academia where you are expected to peruse the literature and discuss it with others, then getting comfortable with it is the best way to go about it!