PhD Research - PhD Thesis Bangalore

Why should you stay away from plagiarism completely?

Visualise that you have toiled on writing something with all you constructive input, and by the end it looks like something you wanted, and you feel very proud of the outcome because a lot of sweat and blood has gone into creating this. But, soon you find out that, what is actually your hard work and effort is being used by someone else in their name. How would you feel? Undoubtedly, you would get angry and annoyed apart from being disheartened. This is the story of plagiarism and it isn’t anything different from stealing something that belongs to someone else, and then calling it as your own. There are a lot of researchers who tend to indulge in plagiarism, intentionally or unintentionally in their project. It is not right, and one needs to be very careful. Here is why:

It is in contradiction with the law: This is very important to know, if you are not aware that by getting into plagiarism of content you are pushing yourself on the other side of the law. The law does not permit to use someone else’s content as your own. If you happen to copy work for which the writer has a copyright, you are eligible to be dragged to court and maybe even pushed into paying a hefty amount for stealing someone else’s work, and calling it as your own.
It is against ethics: It is ethically not right to use others content in your name. When you are tempted to do that, first, you must ask yourself, if someone else would do it to you, how would you feel? Your principles and value system would stop you from doing an act that is degrading.
You aren’t making any new contribution: When you create something new for your dissertation, you are enriching your own knowledge and at the same time contributing constructively in the academia. When you pick up something and show as your own, there isn’t any new knowledge created and it isn’t any different from cheating. Perhaps, just a refined form of cheating.
You may lose your degree: Your supervisor or evaluating committee may find out about the copied content. Most of the time, an expert eye can easily distinguish between original and unoriginal content. In case they decide to take a stringent action, you may end up losing your degree. A risk, surely not worth taking.

PhD: Are you making these mistakes while searching for a job?

Transferring yourself into a new industry while job hunting can be a daunting task and may leave you confused and perplexed. The business world is quite different from the academia and without proper guidance and training you can face a lot of difficulty navigating industries. Some networking tips are surely helpful to guide you to … Continue reading “PhD: Are you making these mistakes while searching for a job?”

Transferring yourself into a new industry while job hunting can be a daunting task and may leave you confused and perplexed. The business world is quite different from the academia and without proper guidance and training you can face a lot of difficulty navigating industries. Some networking tips are surely helpful to guide you to do the right thing. You must ensure to avoid these few things while starting or growing a career in the business world:

Networking with the wrong people: PhDs usually tend to meet PhDs. That is their most common networking strategy. But this kind of networking rarely leads to any kind of job opportunities arising. All that you get to hear are the experiences of the people and not any new job options. You must meet with people in the business wold and people of different industries and interest areas. The more diverse category of people you meet, better would be your scope of landing into getting job offers.
Blowing up your title and attitude: Some people after completing their PhD want to act bigger and refuse to consider themselves at the same pedestal with the others who are non-doctorates as they think that their accomplishment makes them worthy of much more. You must be realistic when you meet with people. Boasting and exaggerating about your skill set may not be of much help and may perhaps bring down your credibility when you are not able to live up to the expectations you have created.
Awaiting contact from others: networking and being known in the business world is all about taking initiatives and contacting people on your own. If you keep waiting all the time for people to contact you then it may never happen. Remember that no one is going to chase you with a job on the platter. The ball will always remain in your court.
Underestimating your potential: This is in contrast to the above mistake. It is right that you must not blow up your title and attitude, but at the same time you must not tone yourself down below your due potential. You end up doing that sometimes, when you show how desperate you are for getting a job or you accept the salary package without any much negotiation. You have to maintain your grace, and create an impression that you are not distressed without a job.

Few aspects of contemporary Social Research

Research is a blend of a wide range of activities and skills. In an attempt to be a good researcher, it is required that one is able to work with diverse people, understand those specific methods that have to be adopted for conducting research, have thorough knowledge about your topic of study, be able to … Continue reading “Few aspects of contemporary Social Research”

Research is a blend of a wide range of activities and skills. In an attempt to be a good researcher, it is required that one is able to work with diverse people, understand those specific methods that have to be adopted for conducting research, have thorough knowledge about your topic of study, be able to articulate thoughts vocally as well in a written way, and so on. The list of qualities and skills desired in a good researcher are endless.

Though, the aspects related to contemporary social research can be described through an endless list, but some of the most explicit and straightforward aspects that relate to research are:

Theoretical: Social research is primarily theoretical as its major concern is with the development, exploration, testing of ideas of the researchers regarding the way the world operates. But is it only theoretical?

Empirical: In addition to be being theoretical, it is also empirical, which means that its foundation rests on observation and measurements of reality of the perception that we carry of the world around us. Most of the research that we see around, is a good blend of the theoretical as well as the empirical aspects of research.

Probabilistic: Another word that describes Contemporary Social Research in a good way is a Probabilistic. This is because this research is based on probabilities. All the inferences that are made in social research have probabilities that are associated with them and the word certainty does not have much to do with research. Research only helps us to approximate probabilities for the situations studied.

Causal: This term means, that most of the research is focused on looking at cause and effect relationships. Though this may not be true for all studies, as some of the studies are only observational and some are attempted to explore relationships. However, studies are beneficial and useful, only when they go beyond observation and exploration. As, change can only be brought by understanding the cause and effect between the factors, so that the problems can be eliminated.

These are some of the important components of Contemporary Social Research and though the list is not exhaustive, and one can surely add more factors to it, but these are the important and definitive components that are used in defining the basic meaning of Research. Researchers must acquaint themselves with the meaning and thorough understanding of these terms, so that they know what their study expects from them.

What has life to offer you after PhD research?

As you are in your research journey, the stage determines your anxiety about what happens next. There of course is life after research but this question does become a crucial question for the life of all researchers. Usually, after a gruelling research journey, at a stage when you have submitted your thesis or waiting for … Continue reading “What has life to offer you after PhD research?”

As you are in your research journey, the stage determines your anxiety about what happens next. There of course is life after research but this question does become a crucial question for the life of all researchers. Usually, after a gruelling research journey, at a stage when you have submitted your thesis or waiting for your VIVA to happen you have may have varied feelings. One cannot really standardize the feelings that a researcher may go through at this stage but perhaps you may feel one of these:

Absolutely elated about your great accomplishment, all geared up and excited to go back to your normal routine or may be wanting to pursue all that you have been delaying or procrastinating for the sake of your demanding PhD or maybe even bereaved.

You have lived your thesis in and out for a long time and the way it becomes an integral part of your life, some people may find it very difficult to leave it, hand it over or give it up.

If you are somewhere in the middle of your research degree you must remember that it is a means to an end and a training ground for all future researchers. Prepare yourself to develop a foothold in the research battlefield and have a bright future based on your research degree.

Whatever future you choose for yourself, remember that before jumping into another battlefield you must reward yourself with a celebration. Take a holiday and move away from the world of analytics for a while so that you can establish your connect back with the world outside. During this interim period do remember to do the following:

Choose parts and content from your thesis that you could use for creating fresh and topical publications
Develop conference presentations from within your thesis
Upgrade your cv with your latest qualifications and keep yourself alert for openings of jobs around so that you can seize openings without any miss

Your break must not be so long that it makes your research obsolete or outdated. More so if you are looking for some funding on the basis of your thesis for further research, you must not delay at all. Your PhD would have in the undercurrent developed various other skills such as problem solving, time management , communication, writing , presenting, analysing that you will get a plethora of avenues opened for you to choose from right after you degree and there won’t be any looking back.

Here are few useful suggestions for writers who are struggling

If you find that you are struggling with your college term paper, trust my words that you aren’t the only one. Your preliminary education does not train you in writing term papers and hence it is common to find college students making common mistakes when attempting to write those papers for the first time or … Continue reading “Here are few useful suggestions for writers who are struggling”

If you find that you are struggling with your college term paper, trust my words that you aren’t the only one. Your preliminary education does not train you in writing term papers and hence it is common to find college students making common mistakes when attempting to write those papers for the first time or in the initial attempts. Some tips here may help you to make your struggle as a novice research writer slightly easier. At least we hope so!!

Know precisely what your supervisor wants from you: You must know your problem statement well enough and all your doubts must be clarified in the beginning only. It is always better to ask questions than to put your efforts in doing work that isn’t correct. Moreover your efforts should be aligned in the same direction that your supervisor so desires.
Try to have an innovative topic after enough brainstorming: a good topic can only lead to a good write up. You must spend ample time and effort into choosing the topic itself. Never do it as a hasty task else you would not be able to create a research that is unique and at the same time is interesting for you. Taking guidance from your supervisor is perfectly ok.
Draft an outline before you actually begin writing: The process of writing a detailed outline is applicable in all stages and levels of writing. You may to rework on it a couple of times but doing that will only eventually structure out a good paper. Taking help from sources is a good idea for the same.
Have sufficient evidence for your answer support: all the claims you put in your paper need the backing of sufficient evidence. Whatever you incorporate as content from other sources, have it as substantive evidence and include it in references to add authenticity.
Have a strong and clear thesis statement: if your thesis statement is strong and then it would eventually lead to a strong and meaningful conclusion. Of course you would need to support it with examples, quotes, statistics etc. to take you to the end.
Take essential steps for plagiarism: the complexities related to plagiarism should be understood well by the researchers before actually starting the work as at all costs it has to be avoided for quality research.