Practical advices for those thinking of or already submerging themselves to the same self-inflicting mental torture

(This is dedicated to my fellow-sufferers (you know who you're). I'm gonna put this entry on top of other entries til my day of submission (and subsequently Day of Reckoning) - See below for current entry)... Any other advices/suggestions/comments on related issues are pretty much welcomed.)

Caveat: R’ber, you’re in control of your destiny.

I. To do or not to do? Tepuk dada tanya selera beb..(dedicated to Laila)

Type A - Most people invest their time for higher degrees due to their job requirement. Getting a license to teach in varsity. Freshly minted phd has no value ie. make no differnece, in corporate world.
Type B - There’re also those who simply do it for the sake of self-actualization – Gosh! It gives them great satisfaction to toil hard & sweat it out for years (and years) only for getting that piece of paper at the end. Of course, education is priceless! So does life & work experience..

If you’re Type A, chances are you’re sponsored for 3+1 years. If you come across those people who had completed everything within the stipulated time – Please whack him or her on my behalf…If you’re not Type A – apply to be one..
If you’re Type B, do plan for the financial side of it. In order to make money out of that piece of paper, you’ve to pour in tonnes of money first…and lotsa time & efforts.

II. How to choose your advisor(s) – Konsep keserasian roh (Dedicated to Liya & Hanim) – I might sound a lil’ bit bitter here…but I’m happy lah (with my choice - have to sleep with it)

Type A – If you come to me (for my expertise), then you’ve to follow lah my research idea
Type B – Awak suka nak research apa? I’ll just guide you along the way…

Choose A if you’ve no idea yet of what to do, the person has a proven track record (graduating students not GIGO), you’ve done your homework by reading his/her research papers…
Choose B if you’re contracted to do research in a specific area, you’ve experienced in doing research, know exactly what you’re doing & where you’re going, have an independent mind…

If you’re female, better work with male advisors. Not that I’m sexist ok. Guys have less toleration towards domestic issues such as anak sakit, maid lari, kena balik kampung etc – all they know is that work has to be done. At the same time, please do not cross the barrier that pre-define the relationship (having affairs with your advisor is unethical but then you’ll be working closely together night & day so it does happen). Yup, females are a fussy lot! Perfectionist! Fickle minded. Both male & female advisors actually.

Not only that you have to find a suitable main advisor, you need also other members to form your committee. Listen to your main advisor’s suggestions. Pray istikharah. Am not kiddin’ – he/she who looks ok now may be the one who stab you toward the end! Scary huh!!

Find out about campus politic but do not– I repeat – do not get involve. Weight-in carefully, you put them in or not, they might be your internal examiner later. Is that good or bad?

III. How to prepare research proposal (To be updated: Rosza to defend soon)

IV. How to prepare literature review (To be updated: Aisyah@d*rham) Synthesize.

V. Practical Advices in Final Stage of Write-Ups (of you know what-lah…)

Coming from ahkak:
Tell your advisors: Hellooooo….dah masuk semester akhir ok! Not high impact journal. Carta Gantt (betoi ka ejaan ni?).
Have a special file folder – target how many pages of A4 papers (say 200 pages for a mere dissertation). As you go along, substitute the blank pages with your real writings, cut & paste literally any relevant sections if required – Forget about perfect complete draft! Purpose is to get a physical feel of your T!
Set dateline for next meeting by today’s. Having a dateline is good.

Fath’s – Since we can’t really push them to read line by line (advisors don’t have much time) – prepare some sort of a simple form where you’ve like 2 columns:
(a) Summary of para #1 VS (b) Comments/Suggestions for Para. 1 & so forth – leave it purposely blank for them to fill in.

Get organized when in come to handling ur data & analysis – always make copies/back up files & update frequently. File naming convention - Date is very important.

English (To be updated)

Zu’s:
type in bold on the cover page: ‘Draft March 18th, 2008’ for every piece of report/work submitted; Change the date accordingly. So that they know which draft that we’re talking about, the most recent. Filename too.

Awg’s:
On the start of your programme, prepare a roomy file folder with your name, thesis title, detailed study plan & ask them (each & every one of your committee members) to put whatever is related to you inside that file & updated – chances are often times they will tell you, “Oh I couldn’t find your paper (selit kat mana ntah)!” & they do have other students to supervise you see, aside from research-in-progress etc.

Make use of Endnote

Make use of the Spelling& Grammar Checks, Track Changes (always print the final version only), Find & Replace, Insert/Object/Equation Editor – for Word.doc

Know how to Excel: Data filter, Sort, macros; MS Access for larger database & making specific queries.

Learn to make use of ppl surrounding you: if you wife is an English teacher, ask her to edit your English, if you fren’s is Mesian & you’re Indon, ask your fren to edit your Bahasa, if a fren work in a consulting co – get a consultant FOC!

At every opportunity, do talk with anyone around about ur T (in general)– the problem statement, research objectives, scope – fine tune it till you’re comfortable with it.

If you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail. Enuf said.

Have buddies, will survive!

Less emailing/blogging please.


P/s: Pray that I’ll submit soon enough so that I can help you next insyaAllah.