What is a good book I can read to prepare for a PhD program?
Rod Pallister
UK based Ph.D. and Masters student coach. Dissertation and thesis writer. Ph.D. & Masters Helpline. Assignment, term paper and coursework writer.
James, I agree with Harry regarding John Creswell’s book, ‘Research Design’ as it provides a basic framework for both quantitative and qualitative study. Practical Research: Planning and Design, 11th Edition by Leedy and Ormrod (2016) is also a good foundational resource although it could be argued that this book is more helpful for ‘novice’ researchers. However, PhD students often screw up on the basics when constructing their Methodology (Chapter 3) in a dissertation proposal.
Another resource which is often overlooked by PhD students is right under their nose. Any good university should have a section in their website specifically about the construction of a PhD dissertation, or a ‘Dissertation Center’. The dissertation proposal template is an excellent place to start as each chapter specifies guidelines regarding what should be included, and also cautionary advice designed to avoid pitfalls. One of the things I suggest to my PhD students, is to ‘Google’/’Google Scholar’ each of the guidelines in the template; such can enable the student go gain further insight… it’s surprising how much help is out there both in the public domain and within the body of scholarly research.
Another advantage to utilising such in-house resources is that the material is often framed around university preferences, in terms of formatting, etc. Although it is really important to access academic literature, it is also critical not to rely only on literature but to leverage your supervisor’s experience. I would argue that this is perhaps more important in terms of surviving your PhD. However, there are caveats to this… please check out my articles
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Just reading books and academic literature falls way short of efficiently leveraging available written resources. I suggest that after reading any book, the PhD student spends at least 30 minutes reviewing each book and conducting an annotated bibliography. This improves research and writing skills, while at the same time, the PhD student can ascertain key themes or subject matter which are relevant, and perhaps, can potentially inform their study. You can spend days/weeks/months reading resources which are associated with your topic, but it’s not the hours spent, but how each hour is utilised. Check out…
Rod Pallister's answer to How many hours of study are healthy for a top student?
I know I am deviating from the question somewhat, but I would suggest that before the PhD student starts any serious reading, they first create a preparatory framework and ascertain what subject matter is central to their study. It is important to have some idea about what your research problem is all about, and why it’s is important, not only to you, but also why it could be a valuable contribution to scholarly research. What I am trying to say is, first ask yourself where your PhD is headed before looking for a good book to read. Check out one of my YouTube videos, it touches on the importance of this central framework…
PhD Student Life | PhD Problems Nobody Talks About
It’s all about preparation, without knowing and understanding the big picture, reading any book is a waste of time.
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A big shout out to Quora; it’s a great resource!
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