1、Getting a Ph.D. or M.Sc is hard work.

2、A doctoral thesis must show evidence of independent enquiry,originality in the methods used and/or in the conclusions drawn and must makean appreciable new contribution to knowledge in the candidates field.

3、One good source of ideas is the further work sections of papers.Read the literature critically. Another good source is redoing bad work, whichcontained the germ of a good idea.

4、Your work must be explainable at a higher level than code, for it tomake a real contribution to knowledge. Try to plan your program theoreticallybefore going to the computer.

5、Not only try out the experiment on one or two people first, but alsotry out the analysis. Don’t keep running experiments in the hope that somethingwill turn up.

6、Make yourself a regular working schedule -- and stick to it. Itdoesn’t have to be 9--5, but there should be a definite time of day when youexpect to start work. Otherwise, you will find yourself postponing the evilmoment with endless, routine, domestic chores.

7、Make sure you leave some nonthreatening, attractive task to do firstthing. For instance, do not leave off writing the day before at the beginningof a new hard section. Leave something easy to start writing: a paragraph whichis routine for you or a diagram to draw.

8、You should make writing a regular part of your life. Keep records ofeverything you do: notes of ideas you have; documentation of programs; lecturenotes; notes on papers you read. These serve several purposes: an aid to yourmemory (you will be amazed at how quickly you forget); a vehicle forclarification (how often you will find that problems appear and are solved asyou try to explain things to yourself and others) and as a starting point for aworking paper. Make sure you write them legibly enough to read later and thatyou file them somewhere you can recover them.

9、You do not have to start writing at the beginning. In particular,the introductory remarks are best written when you know what will follow. Startby describing the central idea, e.g. your main technique, procedure or proof.Now decide what your hypothetical reader has to know in order to understandthis central idea and put this information into the introductorysections/chapters.

10、Clearly there are ways of staying in touch other than reading, butsimilar difficulties apply. One still has to maintain a proper balance betweenlearning about other people’s work and getting on with your own.

11、When reading a paper you will find that you understand it better ifyou have a question in mind which you hope the paper will answer. The precisequestion will depend on the circumstances, but might be: ‘Can I use thistechnique in my program?’; ‘How does he tackle the X problem?’; ‘Is thisacceptable as a journal article?’; ‘How can I present this idea to my class?’.

12、Don’t be afraid to admit your ignorance by asking questions.