November 2018

Kyle’s Tips for October: Effective Reading

News Article by Kyle Trenshaw, PhD, Educational Development Specialist for STEM at University of Rochester

Reading textbooks for courses, articles for the literature review portion of research papers, or even popular press publications about current events can be slow going, and we can come away without really being able to recall much of what we read despite putting in a lot of time. This month’s tip is to find a way to annotate your reading that works for you. By annotating, you are synthesizing as you read, which increases your productivity and your ability to recall information later for exams or as you are writing. Continue reading for some useful advice.

Another Type of Story Teller – The Quantitative Researcher

Career Story by Nan Tracy Zheng, PhD, Senior Manager and Research Analyst at RTI International

In my third year of graduate study, I decided to focus my research on nursing home care. Most researchers who do quantitative research of nursing home care in the US use Minimum Data Set (MDS) - a standard data collection instrument with more than 500 items that all nursing homes serving Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries are required to use for collecting and submitting residents’ health and treatment information. Although it’s called the Minimum Data Set, it is nowhere near small. As I joined my advisor, Dr. Helena Temkin-Greener, on a project focused on the quality of care for nursing homes and started thinking about my dissertation in the same area, she advised me that “from now on, you are going to eat, drink, and breath your data”.