Note to the Reader

And here let me insert a parenthesis to insist on the importance of written exercises. Compositions in writing are perhaps not given sufficient prominence in certain examinations. In the École Polytechnique, I am told that insistence on compositions would close the door to very good pupils who know the subject, yet are incapable of applying it in the smallest degree. The word “understand” has several meanings. Such pupils understand only in the first sense of the word, and this is not sufficient to make either an engineer or a geometrician.

Henri Poincaré

Keeping a Scholarly Journal

One cannot help but be impressed with the huge number of important English naturalists who lived during the nineteenth century. In addition to Darwin, there were Wallace, Eddington, Thompson, Haldane, Galton, and others. One characteristic that permeated their work was the keeping of detailed journals where every observation and impression was recorded. In addition to recording data, a journal provides a way to organize one's thoughts, explore relationships, and formulate ideas. In fact, they stimulate learning through writing.

Journal keeping has declined in the twentieth and twenty‐first centuries, but readers of this book have the ability to recapture that important tool of learning‐through‐writing.

Entries in your (leather‐bound) journal can be entered daily or in conjunction with each section of the book. It is useful to date entries and give them short descriptive titles. While there are no specific rules on what to include in the journal or how to write them, you will eventually find your “voice” on what works best. From the habit of rereading old entries each time you write new ones, see how your grasp of material grows. After years have passed, you will be impressed on the value you give past journal entries.

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