Cataloging Abbreviations in Scientific Articles and Edward Tufte Workshop

As part of my Informatics Journal Club, it was my turn to summarize a chapter in our text. This particular chapter dealt with the use of abbreviations and I had to analyze two scientific articles based on what it covered. I decided to identify, catalog and count all of the abbreviations found in each article. I don't know why I like doing this kind of obsessive/compulsive thing but I do.

First, I captured every abbreviation with a yellow highlighter. Next, I created a small chart in the lower left-hand corner of each page to list all abbreviations found on that page. After that, I counted how many occurrences there were of each abbreviation. I built an Excel spreadsheet to capture all this information and created a scoring system for rating how well the abbreviation was used.

Unfortunately, I found I had to stop at that point. While I might be good at gathering data, I am not good at making mathematically significant meaning of what I gather. I see Statistics Classes looming large in my future!

So, I turned in this assignment electronically because I had signed up for the Edward Tufte workshop, downtown at the Westin Hotel, that was occuring oon the same day my class meets. At the workshop, listened to tips and tricks for making data and information accessible through the use of graphics. It was an interesting learning experience and I spent most of the time multi-tasking on my computer.

We got 4 beautiful hardcover books as part of our registration. It is really wild how important graphics can factor into the presentation of research results and the general transferring of information. One example of a supergraphic, as he calls them, was an illustration of the number of Napoleon's troops entering Russia, and making their way to Moscow, compared to the number of troops who actually made it out of Russia alive. The losses were staggering. They endured temperatures below -20 and -30. Crazy! Another reason NOT to go to war.

Check Professor Tufte out if you get a chance!