To be a Graduate Student
Here are the key paragraphs:
How to Succeed in Graduate School: PART II *http://www.acm.org/crossroads/xrds1-3/advice2.html
Some professors have well defined long-term research programs and expect their students to contribute directly to this program. Others have much looser, but still related ongoing projects. Still others will take on anyone with an interesting idea, and may have a broad range of interesting ideas to offer their students.
Be wary of the advisor who seems willing to let you pursue any research direction at all. You probably won’t get the technical support you need, and they may lose interest in you when the next graduate student with a neat idea comes along.
If you’re more of a risk-taker, choose a topic that branches out in a new direction. The danger here is that it can be difficult to carefully define the problem, and to evaluate the solution you develop. If you have a topic like this, it helps a lot to have an advisor or mentor who is good at helping you to focus and who can help you maintain a reasonably rigorous approach to the problem.
A good way to focus on a topic is to write one-sentence and one-paragraph descriptions of the problem you want to address, and do the same for your proposed solution; then write an outline of what a thesis that solved this problem would look like (i.e., what chapters would be included, or if you’re ambitious, what sections in the chapter).
The proposal should provide a foundation for the dissertation. First, you must circumscribe the problem and argue convincingly that it needs to be solved, and that you have a methodology for solving it. You must identify and discuss related work: has this problem been addressed before? What are the shortcomings of existing work in the area, and how will your approach differ from and be an improvement over these methods?
How to Succeed in Graduate School: PART II *http://www.acm.org/crossroads/xrds1-3/advice2.html
There are two key properties of a good paper: significant content — original, important ideas that are well developed and tested — and good writing style. The degree to which the paper’s content has to be “significant” depends on where you’re submitting it. Preliminary ideas and work in progress are more suitable for a workshop or symposium; well-developed, extensively tested ideas are more appropriate for a journal. One way to decide where your paper should be submitted is to read papers in potentially appropriate publications (e.g., last year’s conference proceedings and current journal issues). Another method is to show a draft or outline of the paper to your advisor or other colleagues and ask their advice.
School Survival Guide *http://projects.ischool.washington.edu/wpratt/survive.htm
Continually update your:
Problem statement Goals Approach (or a list of possible approaches) One-minute version of your research (aka the elevator ride summary) Five-minute version of your research
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