I am a PhD student in Australia. Just finished my second year, in to the third (scary!!!) We have something called confirmation seminar. We need to convince that we are in track, that we can go ahead in the PhD journey smoothly. I had mine a year back and I hit a bump! A serious one!
I was asked to do major changes to the report and re-submit. Why? I lacked research rigour. Whoa wait, what is research rigour? Basically the answer to the question 'Why on earth am I doing this project and are my research tools acceptable'? I did not have proper answers. I failed to answer questions like 'Why did you choose these participant groups?', 'How do you plan to merge different communities as you say in your research proposal?', 'What methods exactly do you plan to follow?'. Trouble!
I realized I was lacking something. I did not even know what I was lacking. So what did I do? There is only one resort you have when you lost - books. I started finding high quality books on aspects like what is research, research methodologies and also subject related journal and conference articles. Then I realized I had a huge gap in knowledge about research methodologies and how to approach a research project (I was already one year in!). I began to slowly understand what epistemology is, what is the ontology behind that, what is my research design/approach, what are the research techniques I am going to use. It all came to light. So , if you have issues understanding these terms, I suggest you to read ASAP!
Reading on subject matters kept me updated on what is happening out there. A good read can re-structure our thinking patterns. You get new ideas to write a paper out of nowhere! You begin to think more critically. You modify your research methods, and even approach. I chased footnotes/references of good articles to find where those authors learned from. I read them. Reading good texts helped my writing too. I began to learn the 'art' of writing for conference papers. And finally I got a paper accepted!
I read almost every night for three months. One hour before bed. On long train and ferry rides. Roughly ten pages per day. A book chapter or an article. I kept short notes. I scribbled on articles. It was a hassle at the beginning. Later I began to enjoy it. A good paper can challenge your mind. It is almost like watching a thriller movie like Inception.
People say writing is the key for a success of a research student. I could not agree more. Publish or perish. My supervisor always says 'If you don't write, then you haven't done anything!' I would like to update it a little. Without good reading, what you write will be just rubbish. People will read, but they won't enjoy your work. If they don't enjoy, you are more likely to fail. I am not saying I am doing wonderfully well, but I certainly know I am doing better. Reading helps, heaps!
