The notebook as a teachable skill

 I think that a lecture on keeping a notebook should have been part of my education. I probably needed several. Maybe one when I started high school. A remedial lecture when I started college.

I remember one lecture on the topic. It was presented by a scientist to a group of limnology students who were advanced enough to help the professors with research. The lesson was on how to keep a laboratory notebook. It was heavy on chemistry. (At one remote point in my life, I was proficient at the Alsterberg azide modification of the Winkler method for determining levels of dissolved oxygen in samples of water.)

I remember coming away from that lecture with a sense of clarity. I knew what the professor wanted. I had an example of how a gifted scientist went about his work.

I wish I’d had a similar lecture from someone in the humanities.

Sometimes I think this collection of notes is an attempt to fill in that gap.