The Scholar's Survival Manual: A Road Map for Students, Faculty, and Administrators

Contents

Contents Preface xv Acknowledgments xxv A Way into This Guide xxvii Glossary xxix 1 Graduate School (Essays #1–54) 3 A. Fundamentals 1 “I Can Do That!” 2 What Is Graduate Education for? 3 Getting into Graduate School 4 Matching and Searching 5 Taking Advice 6 Students 7 Advice to New Doctoral Students 8 Why Get a PhD? Why Be a Professor? And Where? 9 For New Graduate Students 10 Excellent Work 11 Thinking Analytically while Reading a Paper or Listening to a Talk 12 Excuses 13 Getting Your Doctoral Degree in the Fabled Four Years 14 The Limits of What You Learned in College or High School 15 Graduate Student Ambitions 16 Advice to an Ambivalent but Strong Doctoral Student in a Practical Field 17 External Research Support in the Research University 18 Graduate Student Basics 19 Being Autonomous 20 Improving Your Work 21 Learning the Material 22 How to Write Grant or Fellowship Proposals: For Doctoral Students 23 Advice for New Students 24 Qualifying Exams 25 Writing It Down B. Your Advisor and Committee 26 Why Does My Professor Ask Me to Write a Memo before He Sees Me? 27 No Surprises for the Boss 28 Using Your Own Judgment 29 Delivering 30 On Choosing an Advisor and Building Your Studies 31 Choosing Your Committee 32 Firing Your Advisor 33 Memos to Your Committee 34 Success Is Not About Being Top-Ranked at a Top-Ranked School 35 Financial Support and the Subject of Your Research 36 Taking Your Mentors’ Advice 37 How Responsible Should Advisors Be for Their Doctoral Students? 38 The Good Advisor 39 Basics for New Faculty and viii Contents Advisors: Avoiding “Internalization of the Aggressor” and Being “Good Enough” 40 Advisors as Scholars C. Sticky Situations 41 Envy 42 I Would Never Want What Happened to Me to Happen to My Students or to My Children 43 Competition 44 Laptop/ Smartphone/Tablet Decorum 45 The Experienced Student, the Military Veteran 46 Judgment and Grades 47 Plagiarism 48 “Steal My Ideas!”: Impact, Originality 49 Excuses 50 Toward the End of the Semester 51 Doing the Scut Work 52 The Future of Data and Methods–Concreteness: Computation, Cinematic Arts, Statistics and Economics, and Talking to Your Rats 53 Data 54 Incompletes: For a Class, for Tenure 2 Writing (#55–95) 52 A. Fundamentals 55 Writing and Progress 56 Writing a Dissertation Is Chopping Down a Forest, Tree by Tree 57 Dissertation Proposals and Papers 58 Forced Evolution 59 Setting the Agenda: Independence 60 Storytelling and Focus 61 Using Design Skills to Write Research Papers 62 Draw a Target around Where Your Arrow Hits 63 Writing Advice 64 The Writing Path 65 More Writing Advice 66 The Basics 67 Usage Manuals 68 PowerPoint vs. Analytical Writing 69 Rewriting 70 Writing So Your Work Is Accepted for Publication 71 Editing Your Book Manuscript 72 Fixing Your Book Manuscript 73 What Is This Paper About? 74 The Big Idea, Lessons, Lists B. Bottom Line Up Front 75 Bottom Line Up Front = BLUF 76 If You Can’t Say It in Three Sentences, You Do Not Know What Your Script Is About 77 The First Sentence Should Give Away the Whole Story; If Not, Do It by the Second 78 The Takeaway 79 “The Layout Was Hard on the Eyes” 80 Why Papers Are Immediately Returned and Rejected by Journals C. Research 81 Reviewing the Research Literature 82 Boring Work 83 Craftsmanship and Film Editing 84 Rereading Is Illuminating D. Publishing 85 Grammar-Checking 86 Publishing Your Dissertation Work 87 Collaboration 88 Substantial Contributions 89 Reviewers’ Reports, Appropriate Journals, and Colleagues’ Pre-Reviews 90 Writing a Good Second Draft: Take Charge of What You Are Saying 91 Anxiety: Negative Reviews, Coauthoring 92 If You Write a Paper, Get It Published! 93 Why Do People Write Books? 94 Books or Articles 95 Rankings Contents ix 3 Getting Done (#96–112) 85 A. Fundamentals 96 Moses and the Promised Land 97 Brilliant Ideas Are Already in What You Have Drafted 98 Working Hard 99 Catching Up and Getting Down to Writing 100 Taking Notes: Reading Is an Active Process B. Finishing 101 Finishing a Project 102 Getting Done 103 “My Professors Keep Asking for Revisions of My Dissertation Draft” 104 Have You Spent Too Long a Time in Graduate School? 105 It Takes Twice As Long As You Planned 106 Focusing on Getting Done 107 Do It Now: Displacement 108...