5.6 Scaffolds For Keeping Track Of Project Progress

Step back and reflect upon what you discover.

The index cards described in Section 5.5 scaffold selecting and launching a new research project. Once a project begins, I like to track its progress using index cards. I do so by updating various ‘to do’ cards (marking them as completed, date stamping them, etc.). I also create new cards to remind me what new knowledge I have acquired or what new questions have arisen. I create my new cards in a format which I use to communicate project progress to others. Each card holds a short note about the project. The short format forces me to ‘think in paragraphs’: each summary card could be used later as a paragraph topic card in a Chapter 2 scaffold.

I found creating project summary cards particularly useful during the covid pandemic, when I had to communicate with my collaborators remotely. I created my summary cards by creating labels with a word processor. I could print the labels and stick them on index cards for my own use and could also email the word processor file to my collaborators for easy reading.

I find creating summary cards with labels handy because summarizing project progress often requires including preliminary graphs, figures, tables, or statistics. I prefer 2” by 4” labels (e.g., Avery 5163); Avery fits 10 such labels on a single sheet. I find such labels large enough for different kinds of information, but small enough to force me to think in paragraphs.

In general, when I create labels to summarize a project’s current state, the labels present different information. Most labels present facts as short statements: statements about what we did, or statements about what we found. Some labels present results, such as summary statistics or statistical tests. Some labels provide small tables or figures which summarize results.

Creating summary labels forces me to reflect on a project and to carefully examine current results. I focus on what I discovered, on what I still need to discover, and on what findings seem particularly important, surprising, or novel. Thus, creating summary index cards helps me begin to think about elements I use to create a Chapter 2 scaffold: what main points should I write about, and what audience would show interest in such research? In short, each summary card can serve as a potential topic card, or as evidence required to illustrate a topic when I build my Chapter 2 scaffold. Therefore, creating summary index cards helps me bootstrap the scaffold for my outline – particularly if I stick my labels on the blank sides of index cards, leaving their lined sides free for writing topic and concluding sentences!