The PhD Expedition

This week had my Continuous Assessment Test and it seemed fairly simple. All I had to do was to speak about my research topic and work done so far in that direction. I had 15 minutes approximately to present the same through some slides and 15 minutes for comments from DRC memebers and possibly from other scholars who were present.

This didnt seem like a massive challenge because:
(1) I know my topic so, so well.
(2) My job role involves me talking for an average of 2 hours for my presentations. Talking for 15 minutes was easy!

I was so wrong. So wrong.

Here is what could have gone better:
1. Belief: I know my topic so, so well.
Reality check: Of course I know ins and outs of my topic considering my field of work and years of experience but it’s one thing to have industry knowledge and quite another to translate it into evidence-based literature.

Somewhere between my busy work schedule and personal life, reading literature took a backseat. Suddenly just 2-3 weeks before my CAS, words and advice from multiple faculty members and my supervisor on the need to read extensively and “aim to read at least 1 paper each day and before you know it, you would have read at least 365 papers by the end of 1 year” came haunting me. And that advice was given over a year ago. While I had been reading now and then but it was inadequate and putting it all together in a presentation was a whole new challenge!

2. Belief: My job role involves me talking for an average of 2 hours for my presentations. Talking for 15 minutes was easy!
Reality check: The challenge for me was to not speak about everything I knew but to focus only on my topic in a manner that made sense to an audience that was hearing it for the first time. And I stuggled a bit with that. I revised my slides at least 4 times and by revised I mean, re-wrote everything. I didnt even count how many times I tweaked it.
How did I forget that the articles I read thus far are condensed ideas from hundreds of papers? That takes mad skills! Keeping that example in mind would have helped. I need to practice how to condense my knowledge and literature in a more succinct manner.

Here are some tips (that I came across a bit too late) on how to present your research proposal:
1. Think of your presentation like a TED talk. Start with some basic introduction to the topic to bring everyone to a common ground
2. Bring in graphs and graphics in sections where possible. Besides making it easier to convey the message, it gives a visual break in a presentation.
3. It’s important to provide citations but equally important to avoid the temptation to place the entire proposal in text format on slides.
4. If you are smart, you will find ways to add appropriate number of citations and references. If you are smarter, you will know what each of the cited papers says.

Finally, I can confirm that knowledge osmosis does NOT work and that here is no substitute for reading. Believe me, I tried it by placing my math textbook under my pillow for a week when I was 12 just so some formulas would seep into my brian while I was sleeping. It did not. And it did not work when I tried it few months ago with the articles I had saved in my laptop. There is no way around it. Just read. Read. Read!

If any one is curious (or still reading), I wasn’t happy with my presentation though my supervisor was happy with the outcome but then again she’s kind and encouraging. Or maybe my presentation was better than what she expected. Either way, since I can’t undo the CAS experience, I’m buckling down for some disciplined reading and hardcore work to prepare my final research proposal.

Wish me luck!