Contents
Why defend a dissertation, write a scientific paper?
After defending your dissertation, you:
- acquire a new status;
- increase the number of opportunities to implement new creative projects;
- expand the circle of communication in the educational field at a different level;
- create an intellectual resource that will be used by generations.
Choosing a theme is an interesting task!
There are two states when a topic is born:
- You enter graduate school because the topic of your thesis was interesting and you want to move on in the wake of positive thoughts and emotions, with the desire to bring something new and interesting to the life of science. On the advice of your supervisor, you expand the topic and consider it from a different angle.
- You enter graduate school on the wave of new interests that have emerged, and the topic is suggested by the supervisor, which does not always coincide with our vision of “beautiful”.
In the first case, it is very important to stay “afloat” of interest, “not to spill” along the way that valuable thing that moves you forward to defending your dissertation. To do this, I recommend adhering to deadlines, systematically (at least once a week) devoting time to work, maintaining constant contact with the manager (with each individual frequency of meetings, calls, letters, but not less than 1 time in two weeks).
In the second case, there may be options. In order to preserve the vision of the “beautiful”, I propose to independently work out the material and propose three topics, and preferably five, to the supervisor. The most interesting thing in this scenario is the change in theme in the process of writing the work itself.
The main thing is to move forward at a moderate pace, but without stopping.
Conclusion: The theme originally declared may change. Feel free to offer your options and remember the invaluable experience that your mentor has behind you!
How to schedule meetings with a supervisor
Meeting with the supervisor
We need to remember that the degree of employment of a person immersed in science is quite large, therefore:
- We agree on a meeting in advance, two or three days in advance, and preferably a week or two. It is best if you manage to agree on a regular day of consultations.
- The day before the proposed meeting, it is necessary to agree again on the time and place.
- It is important to understand how much time the manager is ready to allocate for you in order to prepare a certain amount of material or questions.
- It is better to arrive 10-15 minutes before the appointed time — you will have time to «collect your thoughts».
- During the meeting, it is better to record recommendations on a voice recorder (unless, of course, the manager agrees).
- Speak your plans for a few weeks in advance — this will increase the percentage of your involvement in work.
- When you return, transfer to paper the information that you received as feedback. Do it without putting off until tomorrow.
Friendly — not heavy, but apart — at least drop it
It will be helpful for you to arrange a joint consultation day for several graduate students. The value of working in a group lies in the fact that even people who are unfamiliar with each other begin to share interesting and useful methods and sources of information on a given topic, which enriches each member of the group.
It is important!
Remember that the best way to communicate with the leader is a personal meeting. But if the manager at a particular point in time offers to contact via SMS, then you should use this particular type of communication.
Any meeting or correspondence with the supervisor implies the maximum concentration of attention on the subject of discussion. Think over your questions in advance, as well as the answers to them. Save your time and the time of the supervisor!
Systematic feedback with the leader (e-mail, phone call, personal meeting) is a very important component of the educational process.
Attentive attitude during the holidays is welcome.
The format of the appeal «Sinton»: «Say» we «,» we with you «.
How to Communicate Effectively with a Supervisor!
For each person, regardless of his age, professional orientation, nationality, it is important to have such a quality of communication that motivates for development (a qualitative change in personality properties regarding knowledge, skills and abilities in the past)!
What are the components of the way to achieve this goal?
- The interest of both parties (it is important to determine the advantages of interaction).
- Systematic feedback with the manager (e-mail, phone call, personal meeting).
- Your weekly scientific work, which can take from 10-15 minutes a week to several hours.
In 10-15 minutes you will have time to review previously written materials (to refresh your memory, which is very important), write a short outline of the article and plan the next steps.
For 2, 3 or more hours, you can make a selection of literature (10-15 sources), or write a detailed plan for the next article or dissertation.
How to allocate time
Sometimes it seems that we are doing too little to achieve a specific goal! If you think you can do more, think about what areas of your life may be left unattended! Rate the consequences!
Where can you find time to work? How to distinguish it in the general flow of important cases? How much time is needed?
Of course, the answer will be different for everyone!
Take a bird’s-eye view of your weekly activity schedule (I hope you already have it?!)! What day for work do you see as the most favorable, if we take the current period of time?
Have you chosen?
Amazing! And now you can tune in to the time: morning, afternoon or evening? Set yourself a goal — to solve the problem and choose the optimal time. There will definitely be adjustments — we all live in a constantly changing world!
Someone needs 15 minutes to experience a sense of joy that, among the important things, you have allocated time for the Dissertation. For some, even 3 hours will not be enough to immerse themselves in work. In both cases, the process will go on if you do this SIS-TE-MA-TI-CHES-KI.
We work systematically!
When planning the writing of a paper, keep in mind that usually scientific supervisors do not rush to write, but this does not cancel the deadlines! Writing a dissertation in one year is on the verge of stress, I know from experience.
I advise you to write an approximate dissertation plan with certain deadlines and volume for the entire period of writing. The plan may be amended during the course of the work.
ORM: Set deadlines for a specific step. The term can be changed (keep healthy)
For example: «my tasks for the next week: 1. approve the first section of the dissertation with a supervisor 2. collect material for the first section.»
It is important to take into account that when preparing the work, it is necessary to refer to the primary sources, and not to rewrite interpretations from other people’s dissertations. After I began to follow the links, I found out that a lot of things are not true.