Reason for this page
Many of my students have already asked, and others will ask, some questions or requests for suggestions. By writing here, I hope to be able to pass on these tips to more people interested in these matters. I intend to update this page gradually. What I write is not the universal solution to all your problems, just a few tips that can help you at various stages of your academic life. I read some of these tips in some places, others I write from my own experience. Use them at your discretion and at your own risk.
Organize your schedule
One of the biggest complaints from people is that they don't have enough time to do everything they want. On the other hand, these people also do not fully use their time in an organized way.
- You are responsible for the use of time: As simple as that may seem, it is the pure truth. If you don't organize yourself, nobody will do it for you (at least not for free!). You have to do a job, you have to read something, you have to study for a test, decide how much time you are going to dedicate to each of the activities. Be realistic, the number of hours in a week is fixed.
- Have an agenda: Organize your activities in your available time. If you have to do something that will take you 5 hours and you have 4 hours free, you must decide if it is really worth spending your 4 hours or if it is better to schedule it for another day. Remember that there will always be last minute activities, so be prepared for that. Leave time on your agenda to allocate for last minute activities. If someone asks you when you can have a meeting, indicate one of these times. If you have a free period (morning or afternoon), indicate times at the beginning or at the end so that you can more easily fit other activities.
- Stay less time online: Read emails less times a day. Usually, 3 times is more than enough: in the morning, around lunch time and at the end of the day. But when reading an email, reply or take the necessary action. If not to act on a message, why read it? When you save a message to reply later, you are not saving time, you are spending at least twice as much time on reading. If you need to use the computer, turn off the audible alert on your email reader, turn off ICQ, MSN, etc. They will interrupt you and disrupt your activities.
- Think before you act: Be realistic, before accepting or suggesting any activity, think about whether you will be able to do it. Learn to say no!
- If you have a commitment, stick to it: You have scheduled to deliver a report, job or similar, delivered. Fulfill what you promised. If you are under your responsibility, indicate that you will comply with it. If you have scheduled a meeting, compare. If it is not possible to accomplish something, let them know in advance enough that no one is waiting for you.
Writing
These tips are for technical texts, dissertations, papers or theses, mainly in the area of computing.
- Always use a spell checker: This is your responsibility. Small errors can pass, but big consecutive spelling mistakes will change the reader's mood and your text will not be well evaluated. Don't expect your advisor to do the spelling check for you.
- Do not wrap: Go straight to the point, wrapping around the text will discourage your reader. Use the following rule: for every 1000 people who read the title, 100 will read the summary, 10 will read the introduction and only 1 will read their entire work. Thus, the title is very important to capture the reader, the summary and the introduction appear immediately afterwards. Be especially concerned about them.
- Don't surprise: Your text is technical, not a suspense book. Make it clear, right from the start, what is going and what is not going to do. Don't let your reader expect something you won't be doing. Be repetitive, if necessary, but be sure to clearly warn you of the limits of your work.
- Organize your text: Reading should be as easy as possible. Worry about the sequence. Write introductory and concluding paragraphs in each section and chapter where needed. Include, in these paragraphs, a link to the anterior / posterior section or chapter. Try to indicate to the reader what he should record for each part of the text he reads.
- Not you who will read your text: You know what you're writing about, but you're writing for others to read. Try to explain even the terms that seem obvious to you. Beware of exaggeration, but do not consider that the reader knows as much as you do.
- Describe tables and figures: Avoid phrases like "The model is described in figure X." or "Table Y shows the results.". For tables, try to indicate how it should be read, writing a line in full. Also indicate the meaning of the columns. For figures, indicate what the symbols used are and what she wants to show.
- URL is not bibliography: Avoid using URL as bibliography. If the document is a manual, make the bibliographic call for the manual and not the web address of the product manufacturer. It is not always necessary to place a reference to a manufacturer's website.
- Use a spell checker: Nobody likes to read a text full of Portuguese errors. All editors have an integrated reviewer. Please, no abbreviations used in emails. Take the opportunity to abolish gerundism from your vocabulary.
Presentations
- You have a time limit: Try not to spend more time than what was provided. Some people will feel uncomfortable if you use more time than they do or if they can't wait for you to finish.
- Beware of animations: Focus on the content. Do not add animations if you are going to go through all the stages at once.
- Ensure readability: Watch out for very small fonts or colors that hinder reading. Whenever possible, test your presentation in the room where it will be held.
- Do not read the presentation: If you are giving a presentation, it is because you know something about the topic, demonstrate it. Put only topics on the slides and talk about them in the presentation. For each topic, try to say something.
- Don't get caught up in all the details: You probably will not have time to present everything you want. Focus on what's most important.
- Compare your results: Indicate where you are good, show that your results are better than the others in these cases. Also indicate the weaknesses, if possible, justify or indicate how to improve. Emphasis on strengths, of course.
- Present your work: If you have to submit related work, spend more time presenting your work than others.
Activities
- Don't reinvent the wheel: This is very common in some masters and doctoral students. If someone has already done something, try to take advantage of the existing experience instead of redoing everything from scratch. Leave the feeling of "I did it" for the new part of your work. If it is in graduate work, try to clearly identify the part of your knowledge that should be exercised when a job is repeated.
- Know how to do before programming: Before automating any task, know how to perform it. If possible, try to resolve some instances manually.