(Last modified Tue Jan 22 22:41 2008)
The nuts and bolts of doing research with me"We'll know more next week." --Donald Bitzer
Question to ask (and answer) about your research: "Why is this wonderful?"
Question to ask (and act on) about your writing: "Is it gripping?" --Thomas A. Alspaugh
Keep a research log of your work. I recommend that this be a (physical) notebook. Bring it with you to each meeting. If you keep it in a notebook, make your entries in pen and if you mark out anything, just draw a line through it (don't obliterate it) so we can later see what looked like it was going to work but didn't. If you keep it in a computer file, follow an analogous process.
You should also maintain a personal research web site on my research server. Your main page should include a link to the server's main page (for my convenience) and links to these pages in your site:
The research summary should include summaries in at least three levels of detail: one sentence, one paragraph, and one page. When you get far enough along, add a two-page summary. Date each one. Keep all your old versions (listed in reverse chronological order).
The submissions timeline should list the papers and proposals you have submitted and those you plan to submit. For each item, give
The high-level log should summarize what you are and have been doing on a quarter-by-quarter basis, organized not by weeks but by themes and topics. List them in reverse chronological order (most recent quarter first). This should not be nearly as detailed as your research log but should summarize what you have done and say what is important. List the papers you read during the quarter in your high-level log.
Your annotated bibliography is discussed in the next section.
The future work lists things that you plan to do, might do, or would find interesting.
The travel plans page should list the days you will not be here, so we can better plan how to use the research group's time. List them in reverse chronological order.
Finally, you should have a page for each research project, and one or more links to any software packages and documentation you produce.
Keep an annotated bibliography of all the papers you read, and show new annotations to me at each meeting. Your annotation should state what is important, interesting, and/or useful about the paper. This may include things such as:
As an example for you, here is my annotated bibliography on the research server (login required). Search for "annotation" to see examples; because the file includes all papers I've looked at, not just those I've read and annotated, there are many entries with no annotation. A good example annotation is the one for Allen1983-mkti. With the annotations stripped out, my bibliography is online and mirrored on CCSB.
Here is some tool support for making HTML bibliographies from BibTeX files: bibfile, bibToHtml.
You will be using your annotations for years to come, if you continue to do research; they will be very valuable to you.
We will initially meet on a regular weekly basis to plan your work and discuss your results so far. My goal is for each week's work to move you visibly closer to completing a significant piece of research. (With more advanced and/or disciplined students, I meet on an as-needed basis.)
(See quote at head of page.)
These meetings may be individual or in a group. I find that it is very beneficial for research students to hear each other's progress and to offer and receive aid and suggestions.
If you feel you need an individual meeting at any point, contact me or just stop by my office.
If you get stuck, whether because you have a question, you find you are confused about what you are to do, or you feel you cannot do what you have planned, your obligation is to email me or see me immediately. Perhaps I can answer the question, explain the confusion, or straighten out your expectations. In any event, I do not want you wasting time because you are stuck on something.
At the end of every quarter, I expect a summary of the work you have done over the quarter. This may be in the form of a web page on the research server, or a paper. I currently prefer a web page that you create week by week over the quarter.
For a results paper, there is no length requirement; it just needs to be "long enough". Two to five pages seems to be about right. I suggest that you add to it week by week. It will probably look a good bit like your research log, except that it won't contain dates and times, it will be organized by train of thought rather than by time, and it will concentrate not on what you did but rather on what you learned and what you accomplished.
Include all your bibliography annotations for the quarter (whether you do a web page or a paper).
The end-of-quarter record is due by the end of the last day of the exam period. If you do a paper, please email me a file named due-date-EndOfQuarter.yourLastName.suffix. Example: The last day of the exam period for Spring 2005 is 24 Mar; 2004-03-24.EndOfQuarter.Smith.pdf.
I am fortunate to work with capable students of great promise, including you. I don't take on students about whom I do not feel that. If you are an undergrad, you should consider graduate school. If you are a grad student, you should have your eye on your eventual Ph.D., which will be within your grasp, although it may not seem like that on bad days. The road is open beneath your feet: follow it.
You should be working on something you are excited about. If you are not, we need to talk without delay. I expect you to work with enthusiasm and diligence because you want to, not because I make you. If you do not think what you are doing is wonderful, then something is wrong and you need to discuss it with me.
If your enthusiasm and diligence do not seem to be moving the research forward at an appropriate rate, then I will first talk with you and then possibly end our research association, either at the end of the quarter or (in extreme cases) immediately.
As a point of reference, you should be spending at least as much time on your research as you would on an ordinary ICS course of comparable units. My understanding is that this should be 10 hours for 4 units. Note that this is a minimum.
I only take on research students who I believe will do "A"-quality work without me needing to push them (see "Enthusiasm and diligence" above). You are expected to do your best, whatever that is, with enthusiasm and diligence, and to give me the summaries, logs, and reports I ask from you at the appropriate times. In that case, you can expect an "A" unless you screw up.
