21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
excellent guide that really spells the PhD process out, February 24, 2008
This review is from: The Unwritten Rules of PhD Research (Study Skills S.) (Paperback)
I read five guides to getting a PhD and this was the one I found the most helpful. I thought it was much better then the Phillips & Pugh "How to get a PhD".
All the books I read contained information on the actual academic process, and about the writing process, but where I thought this one was far superior was speaking about the informal areas of your research experience. It has excellent material about how to locate and build suitable people into different kinds of informal networks to help and support you. It has great infomation about the politics of academic life; how to survive and prosper if you are not naturally good at understanding (or playing in) the routes to power.
The book likens doing a PhD to an apprentice making a cabinet as their "master" piece. You need to display the right kinds of skills to demonstrate that you are an independant and sound researcher. This puts a slightly different spin to your work than just carrying out an independant research project. The book has lots and lots of useful short pointers giving the most helpful nuts and bolts of how to prove to your examiners that you know what you are doing, by explaining exactly what they are looking for in your thesis as that proof.
The book is packed full of pithy points for success; How much/often should I read? Exactly how many references do I need as a minimum? Are they going to be books or journal articles? How can I quickly tell a good journal article from a less-useful one? What's the best way to keep on top of an annotated bibliograhy? What does a successful thesis look like? If I'm trying to get a paper published, how many rejection letters can I expect to receive? If I want to lecture after I'm finished, how early in my PhD do I need to start teaching part-time?
Another part of the book that is different from the rest of the pack is the section on job hunting and interviews after you've completed the PhD. Because this is specifically aimed at an academic career it is more helpful than a generic book on interviewing.
The book also has really useful chapters covering the viva, conferences,and making presentations.
Throughout the book there are reminders about the goal - the PhD. The reader is continually nudged and steered back to the fact that the point of your whole research project is one particular kind of document, that needs to demonstrate particular skills. All the brilliance in the world won't help you if your thesis doesn't communicate it to the examiners.
I would strongly recommend this book to anyone starting, or still doing, their PhD.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A lifesaver for clueless grad students, October 24, 2011
This is a very good book for the clueless grad students, as it teaches many intangible skills which may end up being as important as the research itself.
Skills such as how to network and conduct yourself in a conference, how to plan the dissertation and even critique journals.
There are even sections on presentation skills and CV writing. It also gives tips so that we are not caught in the situation where, we have graduated but realize too late we need teaching experience to get a junior teaching position.
I would highly recommend this as it really helped me a lot in my beginning stages of graduate studies.
However, I have to be honest that, this book might be redundant for phd/graduate students who have great guidance and a wonderful learning culture in their institutions. But for those who find themselves in less favorable circumstances, such as myself, this book is almost a life-saver.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Buy this book!!!, September 15, 2010
This review is from: The Unwritten Rules of PhD Research (Study Skills S.) (Paperback)
If you are doing a British PhD and if you have been out of academia for a while this book is a must. I agree with the comment that you should read it through at the beginning I did that and it gave me hope. Admittedly I have been moribund on a number of occasions (and according to the book there's alot more to come)but this has taken me away from the edge and made me smile. It's very accessible, practical and takes the serious edge off just enough to get you back on course. It is general though possibly not the best text for scientists or mathematicians but I think Arts and Humanities students will benefit from it the most.
The Unwritten Rules of PhD Research (Open Up Study Skills)
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