Articles regularly appear on Habré aimed at helping in writing and defending a dissertation (for example, here and here ). Personally, at one time, I was helped by the comic commandments of the dissertation candidate, who have been more than a dozen years old (the version that I first saw was still handwritten, and shabby no worse than the ancient Russian chronicles).
And in general, writing a dissertation is sometimes useful from a professional point of view, when, for example, you are engaged in a science-intensive business ( which is what I eventually came to ) and I want to impress clients with the depth, breadth and height of knowledge and regalia.
But I wanted to supplement the topic of the thesis writing procedure with a look from the other side. It just so happened that I not only once wrote a dissertation myself and forgot about it as a bad dream, but for several years now I have been a member of dissertation councils - therefore I regularly hear and see passing defenses, and, accordingly, typical problems with them related.
Below I will try to briefly describe the main points that should be paid attention to when preparing and defending a thesis (first of all, a candidate's, of course, since those who write a doctoral dissertation are already, in theory, successful scientists, and with a mustache themselves).
At the same time, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that all of the following is in no way the official position of the academic councils or, on the contrary, the secret knowledge of the clan of professors, but simply the subjective opinion of a single me.
1. First and foremost. You should definitely give yourself an answer to the question - why do you personally need a dissertation. You need a very, very serious motivation to start this job. This is hard and often unpleasant work that will take several months very intensively, and for a couple of years at least it will hang constantly with the sword of Damocles. I don’t have big statistics, but I would say that out of 10 beginners it is good if 2 bring the job to the end. Lyrical digression - what was my motivation? 2. You should never confuse science and dissertation. You can do real science all your life and not have degrees. You can defend a thesis that has nothing to do with science.
3. Dissertation - scientific and qualification work. Which means - a graduate student must show sufficient qualifications to be considered a scientist. If you read about the initiation rites of the ancient tribes, the writing and protection are very, very reminiscent of them. You go through artificially constructed circles of hell to prove yourself worthy.
4. The choice of a supervisor is important, but not critical. For helping you in the process of work is not a fact that it will be. He is a critical figure at the first and last stage - when it is determined where and where to dig, and when it is required to suggest how best to formalize and protect the finished work.
But if you're lucky and your manager is genuinely interested in your work, appreciate it. Don't let his enthusiasm burn out, show progress regularly.
5. Measure contribution and outcome. If you put too little soul into the work, it will be very boring to do. If you invest a lot, you can be very disappointed when you realize that very few people need work except you.
6. It is necessary to clearly understand how the dissertation is analyzed. The dissertation itself, in the worst case, is read by exactly one person - yourself. Typically, there are three more, opponents and a supervisor. VAK and others look at the accompanying documents. For the Council itself, the defense is more than enough to evaluate the work. But the abstract can already be read by several dozen people. And the introduction to the abstract (i.e. the first 5 pages) will be mastered by a hundred.
7. A very simple rule follows from this - the most time and effort should be devoted to what will be studied most thoroughly.
Namely: a. Introduction b. Scientific novelty c. Defense Provisions d. Applicant Job List e. Opponents and Lead Organization
8. Where to start - take one. Search for a topic. This is where the help of a supervisor is needed - he should throw in ideas and tasks, one of which should interest you. When you are interested, just search the Internet and ask how much has been done on it (I highly recommend watching both in the Russian-speaking and English-speaking Internet. automatically translate).
An alternative source of the topic can be anything that you are interested in - an article from Habr or Techcrunch, solving an everyday problem, saving the world, whatever you want. Separately, I recommend looking at the passports of specialties of the nearest Soviets - many ideas may appear. But in any case, then it is necessary to validate the invented topic with the supervisor - he must have an eye for the “defensibility” of the topic. Sometimes a topic is interesting, but there is no science in it.
But the opposite is also true - if the topic is boring and uninteresting - see point 1. Boredom kills motivation.
There is no need to take a topic where there are practically no works, or a lot. In the first case, you will get rid of all the bumps of the innovator, in the second, you will get tired of proving novelty.
I highly recommend, if possible, to combine the topic of scientific research with what one or another has to do in the main job. Yes, it is very difficult to work and write a thesis at the same time. Yes, at the final stage you will not be able to work for 2-3 months at all due to the additional load and activities. But in the end, such an approach will still save a lot of time and effort.
Yes, and an obvious, but important little thing - whatever you find, save somewhere. The same Evernote + Web Clipper will save a lot of time in the next steps.
9. Where to start - take 2. When the topic is there, and everything else is not. I personally recommend the snowflake method(writers also love to use it). In this case, it is applied as follows - it is necessary to compile the content of the thesis (take any publicly available dissertations in the specialty on the Internet / library and see how it usually looks).
The content makes the picture very clear. you still do not know what exactly you will write in the review or, say, the system architecture, but you already understand that such parts should be in the work. It can be redone many times until you have the feeling that you theoretically have something to write for each item or you know how to approach it. Well, and, accordingly, that if all the items are filled in, then you get a coherent story about solving a problem.
My own snowflake, in articles and business analytics, most often looks like this: Chapter 1. Relevance of the problem. Overview of available methods. Advantages and disadvantages. Perspectives. Chapter 2. The theoretical part of what I proposed. Methods. Algorithms. Comparison and niche. Chapter 3. The practical part of what I proposed. Architecture. Performance research. Comparison with competitors. Chapter 4. Practical application. Task - problem, solution, results.
10. Quite often, a graduate student (especially at a university) is perceived as a free labor force . Avoid. Or bargain - because everything you do should bring you closer to your goal - your dissertation. Moreover, it is not necessary that it was the text of the dissertation itself. An article, a program or just the skill of public speaking, acquaintances and good relationships are also needed.
11. It is immeasurably easier to defend yourself in your “native” Council. In this regard, it sometimes makes sense to ask what specialties and topics are relevant and in general can be considered at the Council. Each Council has its own set of specialties. The definition and passport of specialties can be found on the Internet.
12. Don't put off writing articles until the last moment.Now, at least 10 publications are required for the candidate's dissertation, while two or three of them (for different specialties in different ways) must be on the VAK list (detailed requirements are here . Thanks to the user for the linkDreamWalker).
If there is a ready-made more or less complete piece - describe and publish. If you want to improve - write in the article about the plans for improvement. And how you finalize - another article. Of course, every sneeze does not need to be described, but polishing to a mirror shine is pointless.
Article writing is a skill that trains. I wrote my first scientific article for more than three months. Now, on a topic that I am well versed in, I can write an article in 4 hours (I really don’t need to do that - the article is still a serious matter).
13. Participation in conferences , as well as studying other abstracts or simply being present at the pre-defense / meeting of the department is also useful - the more other people's examples before your eyes, the clearer the requirements and expectations become.
14. Any questions or ideas that arise in the course of writing the text, write down in a separate file. If the topic of the thesis changes, keep the old versions in drafts. Save any comments that you are given along the way, as well as the answers to them. Besides the fact that this is just a useful source of your own ideas, it will be very useful for you at the last stage - preparing additional materials. Of course, all my friends and acquaintances of my acquaintances are crystal honest people, but I heard that there are times when the applicant has to write a review of the manager himself. Feedback from opponents. A dozen reviews for the abstract from different universities from all over the country. Implementation acts. Conclusions. And many other equally interesting documents. Let's just say that the situation is not excluded that you too will have to do it.
15. Typical errors and problems - lack of scientific novelty. A very big problem inherent in many works. People are not able to formulate what exactly has been done new (and sometimes they do not think about it in the process of writing - because in a diploma, for example, this is rarely required). But a master's thesis is about 10 degrees in complexity.
For each point of scientific novelty, I recommend a triad formulation: A <idea to be defended> is proposed , differing in <the specificity of the proposed approach> , which allows a <pragmatic benefit> .
16. Common mistakes and problems - lack of comparison with competitors. For 9 out of 10 theses, I could write the same question as an opponent's remark, without even looking into the work. They say that insufficient analysis and comparison of the proposed method with respect to existing analogues have been carried out. The problem is both in the theoretical part of the comparison and in the practical one. Moreover, interestingly, there is an overview of known methods. There are also disadvantages. And then comes the proposal of his own, loved one, fostered, blood and sweat drunk. But to compare one's own with the well-known, and in fair conditions - almost never. As a result, the person describes the proposed method, draws beautiful flowcharts, demonstrates the program screens, and when asked why, in fact, you are better than method X, which also solves this problem, he cannot answer anything.
17. Typical errors and problems - limitations of the proposed method. It is always necessary to clearly formulate in what conditions the method is applicable and gives good results in comparison with analogues, and where it must be applied carefully or in combination with others or not at all. Don't be afraid to say that the method cannot do something. One should be afraid of unfounded statements of broader applicability than in reality. A PhD job is always about finding your niche. You must be able, on the one hand, not to be impudent and not to assert that you have invented a perpetual motion machine, and on the other hand, to defend your modest achievements to death.
18. Typical mistakes and problems - Inconsistency with the specialty passport. One of the worst problems is because when detected automatically means canceling the thesis. It is recommended to study the passport of the specialty, indicate which points of the passport the work corresponds to, and even include certain words and formulations from these points in the goals and results.
19. Be friends with the Council's learned secretary. This is the first experience for you, he / she sees dozens of works every year and knows all the requirements. Listen carefully. Follow the generally accepted rules. See point 3 - this is a qualifying job. And, unfortunately or fortunately, this is not the best place to show your personality.
20. Don't think of others as idiots. When you go to the defense, then in your subject, with a considerable degree of probability, you will understand better than most, if not all members of the dissertation council. Simply because this is a narrow niche that you have personally dug out for the past three years. And they may have completely different scientific interests.
But this does not mean at all that in a very short time they will not be able to evaluate what you have done and find all the shortcomings in what you forgot or failed to do. And this is where respect for others will help a lot.
A separate part of this rule is that you don't treat your opponents as idiots. Therefore, there is no need to plagiarize and copy-paste (including translations of foreign articles). There are almost no people who do not know how to use the Internet. There are only those left who are reluctant to grab your hand.
Also, you should not consider others as enemies - almost never and no one has a goal to specifically harm you, fill up or catch you. It's just that they often play in a different team - they need, for example, not that you defend yourself, but that your defense does not substitute the council or the department (in case the dissertation turns out to be so bad or scandalous that the punishing gaze of the VAK will turn in their direction) ...
21. The most important thing to always remember is the main rule - saving drowning people is the work of the drowning people themselves. There are many good people in life who are capable and ready to help. But fluttering is all the same to you.
Bonus game. Answers to questions asked by beta testers (in the sense - the first readers)
1. And how, good works go, what level? I will try to give a summary assessment, according to the experience not only of my advice, but also when I am present at the defense in other cities / universities by invitation. To be perfectly honest, out of 10 PhDs I see, 3 really deserve a degree without question. Another 4 - so-so, pass on the belly. And with the rest of the trouble. And these are the ones that successfully passed all the pre-filters, i.e. initially the sample is even worse. For doctors the situation is better, but there filtration is much more serious. Here I would say that out of 10 works, about 5 are worthy, another 4 are at the level of a very good candidate, and the last one is at best at the level of bad.
Unfortunately, as long as the Soviets are judged by the number of candidates rather than the quality of work, the situation will not improve. And all the reforms of the RAS are focused not on improving the quality of science, but simply on a classical redistribution of spheres of influence. But this is a topic for a completely different discussion.
2. But with all your requirements, how would you rate your own dissertation? Good question. Even now I am not ashamed of my doctoral thesis, everything that is written there has not only a theoretical basis, but has also been repeatedly proven in practice. But, to be honest, my Ph.D. was damp, on the C grade. Lyrical digression. Why exactly 3. And what does the degree generally give for further work and business? Strongly depends on the type of work. In my opinion, if you have to work in state structures, then it is respected; Lyrical digression - how to check if you bought it or not?- if in educational - it is definitely needed, because many positions informally require it. - If in business, it depends on the role you play in business. For example, if as a developer (from tech lead to CTO), then most likely yes. If in a business role - probably not. At the same time, if in Russia it is still normally perceived, and quite often there are people who successfully combine scientific degrees and business acumen, then in the West, most often, a clear division is implied. Therefore, there is a chance that you will have to break through the stereotype of a mad scientist who can come up with rocket science, but who is not very familiar with commercial and business realities - i.e. the ability to conclude a contract, create and manage a team, etc.
Therefore, I personally have several different business cards, with different beautiful words - for the situation.
4. Does she help the candidate when applying for a job? Depends on the job, of course. In my opinion, much more often it interferes. Especially if a person in the process of obtaining a dissertation worked for several years exclusively at an institute / university.
For in this case (not always, but often) a very interesting combination turns out - the newly minted Ph.D. has ambition and a sense of superiority, and all his habits and work style are not very suitable for business and team development.
If you managed to defend a thesis on a topic that correlates with your main work, and ideally without interrupting from it, or if you work in science-intensive industries, then why not.
5. Can you earn money on science? You don't have to go into science with the aim of making money - its task is to move the world forward, discovering the unknown and inventing something new. Another question is that a scientist should be able to do science and not die of hunger. Lyrical digression. Own experience 6. And what will happen to science in Russia in general now and in the future? But this is the most important question. And I deliberately do not want to give a detailed answer to it - for every interested person must ask it himself and find his own answer. This is mine - science in Russia has not died, will not die, and will only be stronger, but not thanks to, but in spite of.
So I wish everyone (even if it was said on a completely different occasion) - a cool head, clean hands and a warm heart.Read more - https://essaycustomwriting.com/dissertation-service/