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[转帖]Practical Advice for the Successfu Graduate Student
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BASIC REMINDERS: • Know the deadlines for the Department and for the Graduate School. It is the student’s responsibility to be familiar with all of the relevant deadlines for completing the program of study—these can be found in the Graduate Catalogue and in the Department’s Graduate Student Handbook. Exam dates and deadlines are also posted on the bulletin board outside of the English office. Students should not hesitate to consult with the Director of Graduate Studies. • Remember that TAs always wear two hats. You are both students and teachers and neither of these hats can be allowed to grow shabby and neglected to maintain the other. At certain times in every semester, you will be faced with balancing competing needs, yours vs. your students’. The English faculty hopes you will quickly learn that such a balancing act is always part of this profession, but it is rare, in the academic world, that a deadline is both unforeseen AND absolute. Therefore, plan ahead and choose wisely. Such foresight and action is a crucial part of maintaining the good balance that is demanded in this profession. • Develop a relationship with a faculty mentor. You should seek out a member of the professorial faculty with whom you can discuss both the practical and the scholarly aspects of your professional development. In deciding on a mentor, you should consider someone with whom you can discuss, for example, not only your developing ideas for a thesis or dissertation, but also the challenges of how to wear the two hats described above. You should feel free to consult with the Director of Graduate Studies. • Never settle for the minimum. Two qualities that mark successful students, not to mention successful scholars, are intellectual curiosity and intellectual humility. Those who train themselves in these habits always, as an inevitable consequence, reach beyond the requirements in a given course and in the program in general. The point here is not simply a matter of quantity, but also, perhaps primarily, of quality—in short, pursue excellence. COURSE WORK: • Prepare for each class as if you had to teach it. At some point teaching assistants, in particular, realize that they are often more fully prepared for the classes they are teaching than for the ones they are taking. By preparing for the classes you are taking as if you had to teach them, you will certainly be more attentive in the reading you do outside of class, and you will bring more sophisticated and nuanced insights to the discussions in class. • Treasure the 600-level seminars. As a general rule, you should use the 600-level seminar requirement for authors or topics that are within the areas for your candidacy exams and/or for authors or topics that are closely related to your working ideas for a dissertation. Students may even wish to view the seminars as opportunities for writing papers that can serve as portions of a thesis or chapters of a dissertation. In addition, students are encouraged to suggest seminar topics to the Director of Graduate Studies and to faculty members. FOREIGN LANGUAGES: • Satisfy the foreign language requirement early. The purpose of the foreign language requirement is to enable you to conduct research in a comprehensive manner. Satisfying this requirement earlier rather than later in your program has the scholarly advantage of allowing you to access materials in these other languages while you are working on papers for your courses, as well as the practical advantage of not being a sticking point in your progress toward the degree. Also remember that you must satisfy the foreign language requirement before you will be allowed to sit for your candidacy exams. CANDIDACY EXAMS: • Develop a method of study. Copies of previous exams are available in the Graduate Secretary’s office and in the reserve room in the University Library. It is wise to procure these and use them to familiarize yourself not only with the types of questions that are asked, but also with the array of authors and critical approaches that you are likely to encounter. In addition, you should imagine—that is, outline or even write out fully—how you would answer these questions. The point here is not that you anticipate seeing the exact questions again, but that in imagining how to answer any given one of these questions, you have prepared yourself for addressing a whole variety of related questions. • Consult faculty members. Students should definitely consult one or more faculty members for each area exam. The purpose of these consultations could include such matters as: discussing your sample responses to the questions from previous exams; and scrutinizing your preparatory list of reading materials, especially the secondary sources. • Write thoughtful, focused essays. Under the pressure of writing the exams, students sometimes forget the most basic fact that they are writing essays. Thus, after choosing a particular question, take a good 10-15 minutes and think through your response, jot down an outline, create a thesis statement, include good topic sentences and transitions, and use precise and relevant supporting details. In short, in constructing the introduction, body, and conclusion for a given response, you must develop an argument. THESIS AND DISSERTATION: • Choose a topic over time. The best ideas come about through attentive reflection, and that takes time. The consideration of a thesis or dissertation topic should be the ever-present question throughout the early period of your coursework. Further, as various ideas present themselves, you should begin to read rather widely, both primary and secondary materials, to see if the idea is feasible, if it is an idea that has not been fully articulated already, and if it interests you as much as you initially thought. You can then begin to narrow the idea and, as a result, focus your reading and thinking. And, of course, relatively early in your program you should identify and consult with a faculty member who has expertise in your subject and an interest in directing your work. • Choose a managable topic. A thesis or dissertation is not a magnum opus. While the thesis or dissertation is the culminating activity in your program of study, it is not your life’s work. Thus, choose a topic that, in addition to marking your area of scholarly expertise, can also be completed in a reasonable amount of time. • Be persistent in your writing. You will need to develop your own habits and methods for the reading, thinking, and writing that are necessary to complete the dissertation. The particular habits and methods you choose are less important than that you develop, and remain faithful to, productive habits. CONFERENCE ACTIVITY: • Join professional organizations. As part of becoming a professional, you should certainly join the MLA and at least one national or international organization related to your primary area of focus—most of the organizations have reduced membership dues for students. • Attend and present at conferences. Many of the graduate students help organize and participate in our own conference every spring. In addition to this, however, it is crucial for doctoral students, especially, to gain wider experience by attending and presenting papers at regional, national, and international conferences—most of these conferences will have reduced registration fees for students. Again, as part of becoming a professional, you need to meet other scholars in your field and participate in the exchange of ideas that marks academic life. A good list of literary conferences can be found at http://www.english.upenn.edu/CFP/, but also consult faculty members. PUBLICATIONS: • Attempt to publish an essay or two. One of the current realities for graduate students in English is the pressure to publish. However much we may lament the trend, the unfortunate truth is that publications do in fact distinguish one applicant from another in a job market crowded with candidates. As a result, you should identify your one or two best seminar papers and, perhaps over the holiday and summer breaks, rework them and send them out to be considered for publication in legitimate, peer-reviewed journals. Also, look for calls for papers for special editions of journals or for edited collections. Again, consult the faculty, both for revision suggestions and for advice about where to submit your work. ACADEMIC EMPLOYMENT: • Consult with the Job Placement Adviser for all matters related to securing academic employment. The Director of Graduate Studies and other faculty members are also good sources of advice about seeking an academic position. |
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