Research Tips (Don’t)

Are you a postgraduate student? Here some tips for you. What you shouldn’t do as a postgraduate student.

1. Passive. It is prohibited to request your supervisor to think about your research title, research direction and solution. As a postgrad student, you should have your own idea, innovative solution and creativity to conduct your own research, don’t depending on your supervisor to think about it and always pushing you to go ahead.
2. Take the initiative to get your own research idea. Don’t expect the research idea from your supervisor. Where the idea come from? The convincing answer should be Reading. Start your research from reading and find your idea from there (can find the reading tips as posted previously).
3. How to create the chart/graph/table? Don’t try to ask your supervisor to do that for you or write the thesis for you. When you done your research or when your research is on-going, how to convert your research into publishable technical/research paper? The smart way is find out existing good-writing papers in benchmarked (high impact) journals, read that paper and imitate the writing style, the way the authors wrote their papers, how they created their chart/data analysis report and so on. Start to write papers as much as you can to get the conductive comments from the experts and you will find out that it is easy afterwards when you write your thesis.
4. If your research is a part of a team/giant research, teamwork is important, don’t be too cattiness about your own achievement/contribution or knowledge, share with your team, help your team members and ask if you face any difficulties. Teamwork will help you to control your research flow, momentum and the stamina.
5. If you are a scholarship owner or you are not facing any financial problem, don’t simply take a part-time job. It will spoilt your research mood and causing the delay of your research. Consequently, you may lost your idea, taken by other researchers because of your delay, or your potential research solutions had been done by others (they are quicker than you).