7.1 The Role of Sketches

Detailed notetaking is an essential aspect of the research process. There are countless benefits to taking detailed notes throughout as you work in the lab or on research projects. Some of these benefits include:

• Increased transparency and openness in your research and thought processes.
• Enhanced reproducibility of your experiments and lab work.
• Your notes may be able to help you explain variability or unexpected results.

While detailed written notes can be extremely helpful, their combination with sketches is powerful. Some things you might sketch include:

• Experiment plan or design.
• Any apparatus’s used. This is especially handy if you are using a novel method or apparatus.
• Organisms or structures viewed under the microscope.
• Organisms or structures viewed during a dissection.

Providing a quick simple sketch alongside your written notes provides additional context to help both yourself and your reader understand what you observed or your train of thought.