{"id":143,"date":"2017-07-13T15:27:47","date_gmt":"2017-07-13T13:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staff.um.edu.mt\/jebej02\/blog\/?p=143"},"modified":"2020-11-03T17:23:15","modified_gmt":"2020-11-03T15:23:15","slug":"three-tips-for-a-successful-start-to-your-academic-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitsilla.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/three-tips-for-a-successful-start-to-your-academic-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Tips for a Successful Start to your Academic Project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">So, you have contacted me to undertake a project (Dissertation\/FYP\/Thesis) together. &nbsp;That is Great! &nbsp;I am enjoying it already. I always find myself repeating the same pointers to each student at the start (or throughout the project really). &nbsp;Thought I would write them down for posterity. &nbsp;So here comes my recipe for success, for the first few weeks at least.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My projects are typically on the life sciences\/computer science interface (but we&#8217;ve had many different ones &#8211; including intelligent automated sports betting). &nbsp;But these three ingredients apply to any kind of project really.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">0 &#8211; READ<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The first, absolute <strong>must-do<\/strong> if we are going to do this is that <strong>you must read &#8211; and learn how to read<\/strong>.<strong> &nbsp;<\/strong>This means papers, books, articles on the subjects you are weak and don&#8217;t know. &nbsp;You cannot shallow read (abstract\/introduction\/conclusion) &#8211; this has to be taken seriously, and you have to jot down notes about what you read (and hopefully learn). &nbsp;In fact,&nbsp;<strong>the first task I will give you<\/strong>&nbsp;is to find five to ten scientific papers (depending on how familiar you are with the subject at hand) in the specific area we are going to tackle and ask for a presentation with a summary of each paper where I get to ask questions. &nbsp;This is not a small and trivial task to do well, and usually takes two\/three weeks. &nbsp;Also, this is not the end of your reading, but the beginning. &nbsp;So put your reading glasses on. &nbsp;If you don&#8217;t have reading glasses, you are probably going to need some by the end of this project&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1 &#8211; WRITE (Keep a Research Journal)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The second thing I ask students is to <strong>keep a research journal<\/strong>. This may take various forms &#8211; an online blog, a physical pen and notebook (I love ruled and coloured\u00a0<a rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2HsVpUp\" target=\"_blank\">Moleskine<\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" hidden=\"\" style=\"border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;\" src=\"\/\/ir-uk.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=jpblog0a-21&amp;l=am2&amp;o=2&amp;a=8883701127\" alt=\"\"> and <a rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2UutcjS\" target=\"_blank\">Leuchtturm<\/a>),\u00a0<a rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Github<\/a> (create an account, because you are going to need it anyway), or Word\/LaTeX documents. \u00a0Each meeting, typically held\u00a0fortnightly, will start by going through the &#8220;agenda&#8221;. \u00a0The agenda consists of Date\/Time\/Location of meeting, folks present, and three main sections:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Where were we<\/strong> &#8211; a small recap of where we left off of last week<\/li><li><strong>These last <em>n<\/em> weeks<\/strong> &#8211; what you have been up to since the last meeting (results, or attempts at getting some). &nbsp;This is a sectioned list of bullet points with each strand of research properly and separately addressed.<\/li><li><strong>What is next<\/strong> &#8211; what you are going to tackle next<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>It is up to you to decide whether to have one document (with many entries) or many separate documents (per entry). &nbsp;In case of the latter, the filename should start with the date (YYYYMMDD) so they can be naturally sorted. &nbsp;Don&#8217;t forget to send me electronic copies of the journal by email <strong>before<\/strong> the meeting. &nbsp;I need to prepare too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This research journal (or whatever you want to call it) is the basis of our discussion and needs to be updated regularly. &nbsp;Trust me I&#8217;ve done this during my D.Phil, and it has served me gold. &nbsp;You level up if you do this. &nbsp;Here are <a href=\"http:\/\/bitsilla.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/drjeanpaulebejer_dphil_meeting_reports_sample.tar.gz\">a few <\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/bitsilla.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/drjeanpaulebejer_dphil_meeting_reports_sample.tgz\">examples<\/a> of meeting reports picked randomly from my days in Oxford. &nbsp;Note that sometimes an entry is just a few bullet points long, and sometimes it is considerably more detailed (hopefully when we get results of sorts). &nbsp;Again, I strongly advocate the use of bullet points; these make it easier to read through it. &nbsp;This is <a href=\"http:\/\/bitsilla.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/JosephDEmanuele_MSc_dissertation_meeting_minutes.pdf\">the research log<\/a> of one of my students, Joseph D&#8217;Emanuele (originally in the form of a shared google document).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/bitsilla.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/goku.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"227\" height=\"300\" src=\"http:\/\/bitsilla.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/goku-227x300.jpg\" alt=\"Goku\" class=\"wp-image-148\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bitsilla.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/goku-227x300.jpg 227w, https:\/\/bitsilla.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/goku.jpg 736w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 227px) 100vw, 227px\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Goku levelling up (Dragon Ball Z) &#8211; same as you if you follow these three simple rules<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>I always tell my students that the only way to learn how to write scientifically, is to read (refer to heading 0 above).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2 &#8211; REWRITE (the Proposal in Your Own Words)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The third thing I will ask from you is to rewrite the proposal in your own words. &nbsp;This, of course, only applies if I wrote the original proposal. &nbsp;This serves a couple of purposes, but the most important of all is that you understand the scientific question we are trying to answer, and why it is important. &nbsp;Note that proposals and objectives change, and it is common &#8211; especially for a post-graduate student &#8211; to change the research question during the course of your project. &nbsp;If you don&#8217;t have a proposal yet, this third step will make sure you write one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Concluding, this is already quite a lot to do, and you haven&#8217;t even started yet! &nbsp;So roll up your sleeves and get going. &nbsp;The most important thing is to remember that this is your project, and you have to take ownership of it. &nbsp;For my part, I promise we will have fun and swear in equal measures!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Soon you will start thinking about your Progress Report (read: <a href=\"http:\/\/bitsilla.com\/blog\/2016\/11\/whats-in-a-progress-report-fyp-bscmsc\/\">What is in a progress report?<\/a>). &nbsp;We will get there, one step at a time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So, you have contacted me to undertake a project (Dissertation\/FYP\/Thesis) together. &nbsp;That is Great! &nbsp;I am enjoying it already. I always find myself repeating the same pointers to each student at the start (or throughout the project really). &nbsp;Thought I would write them down for posterity. &nbsp;So here comes my recipe for success, for the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-students","category-supervision"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pap6Kd-2j","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitsilla.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitsilla.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitsilla.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitsilla.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitsilla.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/bitsilla.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":648,"href":"https:\/\/bitsilla.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions\/648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitsilla.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitsilla.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitsilla.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}