Review: The A-Z of the PhD Trajectory

Introduction

I recently began my PhD journey and was searching for resources about the overall process. I just happened to stumble across The A-Z of the PhD Trajectory by Eva O. L. Lantsoght. It covers the various steps of the journey and seemed rather interesting.

Having just recently finished the book, I can confidently say that it is a fantastic resource. I have already found many of the sections useful and know that I will continue to find other sections just as useful during my PhD career. This post highlights some of the main elements of the book and sections that are particularly beneficial to me.

I should also note that the the author maintains a blog called PhD Talk that covers even more information beyond the book. It is just as useful and is now one of my go-to blogs for PhD related matter.

Overview

Each chapter covers a different part of the PhD process. Some are explicit steps like a literature review or dissertation. Others are useful aspects like time management, writing, and conducting experiments. Each chapter is also pretty straightforward to read through. Depending on your ability, you could probably read through any one chapter in an afternoon. While the author comes from a technical background, the material seems written general enough to apply to any PhD study. However, I also have a technical background, so may not be the best judge of that.

Each chapter start off with an abstract and introduction, as any good academic writing should. It then walks through the different points that make up the subject of the chapter. Along the way, the author includes various exercises that relate to the material. She also frequently includes her own experiences and recommendations. This gives it a helpful, casual tone that helps you relate to the author. Personally, I found it reassuring when the author included times she learned some best practice the hard way. We will all mess up at some point, and that is okay. Additionally, each chapter is filled with additional references to her blog and other useful sources for further study.

Sections

The book has the following sections:

• Introduction
• Getting Started
• Time Management
• Literature Review
• Developing a Research Question
• Experiments
• Writing Skills
• Presenting Skills
• Communicating Science
• Attending Conferences
• Writing a Journal Article
• Dissertation
• Post-PhD Career Options
• An A-Z Glossary of Terms

Rather than go through each chapter, I am going to discuss a few parts that were particularly useful for me.

Time Management

One of the earliest chapters discusses scheduling your time. This includes both your day-to-day tasking and the key milestones along the way to a PhD. This is obviously vitally important, since a PhD takes a ton of work. The author highlights strategies for how you can work with your advisor to ensure that the various key milestones are appropriately spaced and to ensure that you remain productive as you work towards each milestone. This includes several recommendations for how to actually plan your days, including things like blocking off your calendar. It also introduces a recurring theme throughout the book of following the “red thread,” which is the key idea of your PhD. In order to stay on tasks, the author repeatedly suggests that you continue to evaluate the most important ideas of your research and ensure that your tasks align to those. Additionally, the author stresses the importance of self care throughout your program. It is important to schedule time off. You can’t sustain a 24/7 research pace for very long.

I found this section particularly interesting, as I am always on the lookout for time management tips. In fact, I actually changed my way of scheduling my time because of it. Previously, I would essentially improvise what to do during each unscheduled chunk of time at work. This often led to me working on the shiniest task or latest email. Now, I start each week the same. I sit down and block off my whole calendar for the week. I make sure that sufficient time is devoted to the items that are most important. This has the added benefit of preventing disrupting meetings from popping up unexpectedly on my calendar. I’ve already noticed a difference in my productivity and stress levels and will continue to use this method.

Literature Review

This chapter discusses conducting a literature review. It includes identifying information, reading through it, understanding it, and storing notes for use later. Refreshingly, the author recommends several digital media to store sources. While she also recommends some paper options, there are several great digital resources that are basically made for storing information like this. As an avid digital note-taker, I wholeheartedly approve of digital options.

Additionally, this chapter gives an excellent breakdown of different levels of engaging with academic literature. These levels start at a novice that “may spend more than a week working [their] way through the first paper” and continue up to a top tier researcher that dives in to papers to pull out the exact information that they need, while relating it to the entire field they already understand. The author notes how researchers slowly progress through these levels over their entire career. I found this breakdown particularly interesting, as it makes sense and also reassures me when it take longer than expected to understand a paper. Practice will help me move up through the levels.

Developing a Research Question

There is an entire chapter on figuring out your thesis question. The author walks through how you can start with a big idea and narrow down to a set of feasible, but still impactful, sub-questions. She then directly traces the line between these sub-questions and the research that you need to do to answer these questions. There are also suggested tools for thinking creatively and organizing the questions.

As someone who had trouble clarifying their topic beyond high-level abstract concepts, this was a tremendously valuable chapter. After reading it, I sat down and drafted out a mind map of my area of interest. (Mind maps are one of the tools suggested.) This helped me identify that my topic covered an incredibly large area and helped me clarify it into the topic that it is today (robotic navigation with passive sensors). It is a much more focused set of questions. After doing this, I discussed with my advisor and he is in full agreement too and thinks they are very rich questions. So this chapter has already benefited my PhD career.

Writing and Communicating

There are actually several chapters on communication. This includes writing papers, presenting at conferences, communicating overall, and more. As mentioned when I first started this blog, writing is probably my weakest academic skill and one that I am actively trying to improve. The various writing based chapters gave me a number of excellent pointers as well as additional resources to explore. In fact, the author’s recommendation to practice via a blog is why this site exists!

One of the other parts to these chapters that I really liked were sample time breakdowns. The author would walk through all the steps needed to, for example, write a paper. She would then estimate how long each step might take. While these estimates vary between people, just seeing this process helped improve my estimation process. In fact, I recently had the chance to apply it directly. I had a paper accepted for some research at my work. I used this process to lay out when each step of the process should be complete. I still underestimated. However, it was a closer estimate than I would have created previously. Additionally, I was able to finish the process without cramming everything at the last minute and while still competing all my other job duties. Next paper, I should be in a much better spot for planning.

Other Useful Content

Each chapter had information of value. I could spend pages discussing all the things I learned. While the above sections were the ones most memorable to me, there are plenty of other chapters that might be particularly valuable to others.

There is an entire chapter on attending and presenting at conferences. While I have been fortunate enough to attend a few already, the tips are excellent. Particularly the pointers on arranging meetings outside of the presentation schedule and leaving time to explore the city. Those are things I need to do better. Overall though, that chapter made me very excited for the next conference I will get to attend.

There is also a chapter on the dissertation and defense. I have a way to go before then, but there are a number of useful points covering what to do in the lead up to the big day and the day off. I will certainly come back to this section as my dissertation approaches.

Lastly, throughout the chapters there are also often sections that provide additional advice for international students or women relevant to the subject matter of the chapter. These parts often draw on the author’s experience as well.

Overall

Overall, this is an excellent book. The author’s blog is equally excellent too. Both provide in-depth information about the PhD process and provide tons of useful tips to help PhD students along their journey. Almost every aspect of the program is mentioned at least once in the book. The only section missing is on acting as a TA for a class, for those that are required to do so. But all the chapters have clear explanations and useful tools to help. The author’s personal experiences also help drive home the points.

I think this is a valuable resource for anyone on their PhD journey, even if they are already a significant way through already. At the very least, you should jump to the sections that seem the most interesting or cover areas you need the most help with. I know that I will be referring to this book throughout my PhD journey.