"If I want to re-read a graduate student"-Academician WANG pansen

I. Differences between graduate students and college students
First, let us explain the differences between graduate students and college students. College students basically accept and accept knowledge. However, for the master's or doctoral studies, they should be prepared to begin to create new knowledge, when we received a doctorate in the United States, we would receive a diploma that we couldn't understand. At an accidental opportunity, I asked a person who knew the Latin. What was the above? He told me, "Congratulations!Innovation in human knowledgeTherefore, you are awarded this degree .」 I didn't have a doctor's degree in China, but in the west they originally intended to congratulate you on your innovation in the general knowledge of mankind. This innovation is either big or small, all contribute to general knowledge. This innovation will not be different because you are local or not. Therefore, we must think carefully and deeply. College Students and graduate students are different.
(1) select your own problem orientation and learn to innovate
Once you are a graduate student, you have already entered another stage, not only to be completely happy, but also to accept all kinds of interesting knowledge and enter the stage of manufacturing knowledge, that is, your thesis should be innovative. From accepting knowledge to creating knowledge is the biggest characteristic of a graduate student, Not only that, but also realize that you are no longer a container, waiting for the teacher to pour something into the cup, but to gradually develop and develop yourself. As a graduate student, they no longer accept all kinds of novelty courses, but pay attention to the problem-oriented arrangement, that is, in the master's or doctoral stage, All energy, all attention, and books should have a focus, rather than being as objective-oriented as a university. . In the age of college students, you should try your best to create and accept anything. But when you reach the master and doctoral students, the ultimate goal is to complete the thesis, that paper is the combination of all your martial arts, so you must have a problem-oriented learning at this time.
(2) try cross-domain research and take the initiative to learn
Raise an important question that spans an important field and determines your future success or failure. I have taught more than 10 years in Taiwan and Tsinghua. I often tell students that, Selecting the right field and selecting the right one is the key to success or failure. And you must explore the infinite learning world with questions, because you are no longer as full as in the college age. Therefore, during this period, You must select a topic of interest and attention as the starting point to explore this knowledge and generate an organic loop. Because you are naturally curious and interested in this issue, your attitude is very different from that of students in the University. You gradually change from passive recipients to active explorers, he also learned to study youyou in this academic field.
For example, Mr. Li yuanzhe, president of our Central Research Institute, won the Nobel Prize. He once wrote several articles in the weekly report of the CAS. Article In his speech set, you may also see that he has repeatedly mentioned his story. He went to the university of Berkeley to study because he had read a textbook called Professor Ma Heng. Only then did he find that the teacher only gave him a check, tell him you want to spend money, but you never teach him anything. But the professor next door taught a lot, and every day the students learn from the teacher. He once complained to the teacher, "Why didn't you teach me something ?」 The teacher said, "if I know the results, what do I want you to study here? I don't know, so we need to explore a problem and an unknown field together .」 He said that these two teaching methods are actually useful, but he never taught him anything from this. He always met the teacher who only asked him if he had any new discoveries, it has grown a lot. Therefore, both of these aspects have their own deep principles. There is no such thing as good or bad, but the best way is to combine these two methods. Why should I tell this story? It is to emphasize that at this stage, learning is a kind of "self-help" and learning "self-help" under the guidance of a teacher, instead of like a college age, they are purely listening. At this stage, learning should be based on curiosity and interest in research issues, and we should explore this field with a dedicated heart.
However, another important stage for graduate students is to learn how to learn, I don't want to buy a very beautiful dress anymore. I want to learn to pick up the needle and learn to embroider a beautiful dress. , Learn to put the goal on a standard, and this standard is that you will finish your master's or doctoral thesis in the future. If you go to a top Western University to study, you will feel that this paper may be compared with people around the world who have the same problem. I think you should have such a mood even when you are **. Your standards should not only be placed by a few people, but should be put into a common person in the field. In this article, you must have something new that meets the standards that we have just mentioned above. It has contributed and innovated.

 

2. How can a teacher train graduate students?
Second, as a teacher, how do you train graduate students. In my opinion, training in humanities and social sciences, even in natural sciences, should be more like mentoring at the graduate stage, therefore, the close interaction and learning between individuals, teachers, individuals, and peers is very important. It is different from the university department who just listens to the lectures, in contrast, your life should be combined with the knowledge and answers you pursue, and your future life should be more or less related to this exploration.
(1) make good use of the partnerships with teachers and constantly Research
I often say that the word "research" is very meaningful. Search is a search, and research is a search. So everyone needs research and searches again and again, and then make your life and study one. Jiang baili, the master of Modern Chinese military science, said in his military science book: "living conditions must be consistent with combat conditions. In modern Europe, all living conditions must be consistent with combat conditions, if the living and combat conditions are inconsistent, the weak ones are weak. 」 I use this to illustrate the life of graduate students. Your living conditions must be consistent with those of your battles,Your life is growing together with your teachers and classmates. Every sentence you hear may inspire you infinitely. 
Looking back at my graduate student life in the United States at that time, as long as I met anyone on the stairs, he could help solve your language difficulties, whether in English, Latin, German, or Greek ...... . So what can help solve the problem is not only your teacher, but also all the students and study groups. Your learning is combined with life. When I see that some students are passive or slack, I will use Mao's "The revolution is not a treat !」 Come and tell him: "It's not a treat for graduate students .」
(2) entering the research field by reading a lot and giving a few tips
I personally think there are only two ways to enter the best field. One of them is to keep him studying and reporting. This is the fastest and most convenient way to enter a strange field, at the end of the day, students will know something in this field. When we keep studying, we may often indulge in details and lose the panoramic view, leading to the inability to see trees, or get stuck with those sentences, and forget what the whole world is talking about. With the student's report, the teacher can tell or clarify the essence of the content. After a few comments from the teacher, the teacher will gradually break through the second pulse of Ren du and gradually develop a kind of spontaneous learning ability, at the same time, you can know what problems you encounter. It's like when I was studying in the United States, I learned the history of some countries that I have no background knowledge at all, so I kept studying and absorbing myself, however, the instructor keeps reading books and uses this method to train slowly. When I no longer study it one day, I find that I still have the ability to produce and develop myself, because I know what kind of knowledge is like, and I have the ability to query relevant materials when I encounter problems. Therefore, it is very important to make your learning expand spontaneously.
(3) exercise Essay Writing step by step
The most important thing for a master's or PhD is to complete a degree thesis, whether it is a master's or doctoral thesis, its scale is far longer than the education you have received since elementary school and what you want to write. Although I don't know how the papers on education are, however, historical papers must contain 2 or 0.3 million words, or even dozens or 0.2 million words. How can we be well organized and clear, and organize the overall architecture smoothly and easily? First of all, you must perform step-by-step training from one thousand words, five thousand words, and 10 thousand words. First, you must write more words from less words, in addition, you need to train within a short period of time to write 10 thousand words from 100,000 words. Everyone can write such a large-scale paper, but the problem is that it is not well written. Because of the large scale of writing, there are so many memos, you should also pay attention to the first and last reflection, so that the entire discussion is formed, instead of the copper coins scattered across the ground, it is a large auditorium, rather than a small split loft. In order to complete a large, complete and organic architecture model, it is the most effective way to practice it slowly from a small size.
Due to the influence of computers, I found that many students have greatly reduced their ability to write articles. When writing a thesis, it is very important that you understand the document, do not be fancy, do not be beautiful, and "clear" is the highest guiding principle, after a slow exercise, your writing and thinking will produce consistent consistency. I often tell students that they don't have to write well, and they don't have to show your prose talents. Because this is an academic paper, the key is to make it very clear. If there is a good article, of course it is better, however, it is unavoidable. The color is like a person's life, and the English style is like a person's life. Therefore, the most important thing is to clearly state the content. Everything from 10 thousand words to the last 100,000 words should be well-structured, well-illustrated, and clearly written.
When I was studying, there was Lawrence stone, a master of European and British history. He has passed away now. There was a book that visited ten of the most remarkable historians, I remember that he made a very attractive remark during his visit. He said that he was very good at English writing, so he was never retired. Therefore, a clear or well-written document plays an important role in the acceptance of future articles. The content is very important. A good expression tool is more important, but it is not a pretty style, but a clear description.

3. How do graduate students train themselves?
(1) try to accept the challenge and overcome it with courage
How do graduate students train themselves? Every day, every week, or every month, you have to challenge yourself every other time and challenge things you cannot do. You may not necessarily want yourself to overcome that challenge each time, but try again. During my career at school, I met too many smart but useless people, because they are easy to get stuck in their own obstacles. For example, when I met a very smart person at Princeton University, he just couldn't overcome the challenges he gave himself. He always looked at the west. Even though I had this problem, however, I will give myself a challenge on a regular basis. For example, I will tell myself that in a certain period of time, I must change these three lines, or I must write this draft this week, although I still can't finish it all the time, this challenge is not the same as the challenge. Because I will always finish it once three times, and it will be enough to overcome myself, if you feel that the challenge of every week is too low, you can extend the time to a one-month challenge to challenge what you did. But remember,Master students are new to this field at the beginning. If the problem at the beginning is too small or the problem is too big to be controlled, it will cause difficulties for future research. 
(2) writing a thesis is a training process, so it is not necessary to finish the classical work.
Remember what my previous teacher said: "Masters and doctors are a training process. Masters and doctors are not a classic process .」 I have seen a lot of people, including my relatives and friends, who cannot complete their master's thesis or doctoral thesis well because they regard it as a process of writing classics, the best work of many people in their life is a master's thesis or doctoral thesis, because it will be difficult to spend three or six years later, immersed in a topic and work repeatedly, when you are a professor, you don't have enough time to explore a problem, as I am in the midst of today's administrative troubles. Especially when you are a professor, you have to instruct students and take classes, so you are very busy, so the most concentrated and essential time in his life is, of course, when he writes a doctorate or master's thesis, it is not surprising that he became the most important book in his life.
You do not have to deliberately force it. You must have the belief that this is a training process. You must know where to start and where to let it go. Do not pursue it infinitely. Of course, I do not deny the importance of this process. I just need to adjust my own mentality, take the thesis as a goal, and do not become a psychological obstacle or a psychological burden. There are too many examples in this regard. When I was studying at Princeton University, there was a very knowledgeable old bookstore owner there. I often said to him with admiration: 「 why do you not want to be a professor at a university. 」 "Because the doctoral thesis has not been written," he said .」 The reason is that he regards the doctoral thesis as a classical book, and of course it will never end. It would be the best if it could be written as a classic, just like John Nash, the movie hero in the beautiful new realm. his greatest contribution in his life is Dr.'s papers on over 20 pages, but remember not to regard that as a goal, because it is naturally formed. We should firmly tell ourselves that what we want to accomplish is a thesis with a rigorous structure, a clear and well-spoken explanation, don't look forward to it as a classic in the beginning. If you expect it to be a classic, you may become the boss of the old bookstore I saw. Why do I know that he has so much knowledge? At that time, I was looking for a book, but it is not in the old bookstore, but he told me: "There are many other books that are comparable to him. 」 Then I understood that field a little and proved that it was as he suggested. The boss of an old bookstore is familiar with every book, but he will never be able to complete it. His fantastic degree thesis, because he does not know where to let it go, is nothing more than empty talk.
  (3) formal writing of the thesis
1. Learning is preferred
When writing a thesis, you must be able to take and give up,Because there are too many books that can be read due to information explosion, you must construct a tree of your own knowledge. First, you must have a tree of your own knowledge to Mount related things on that tree, but do not keep hanging irrelevant things, and slowly remove things that cannot be hung up. With your problems and fields of interest, let this knowledge tree have trunk and branches. But how should this knowledge tree be formed? First, you must be familiar with useful books or data in the field of interest. 
2. Form your knowledge tree
I also asked Academician Lin Xiaosheng about his 70 s years old yesterday. I told him that I would give a speech today and asked him: 「 what do you want to talk about this question? 」 He said, "The only thing is that the five and six important books should be read several times .」 Because Mr. Lin was a student at the University of Chicago, he was also a student at the University of Chicago, An important part of their training is the intensive reading of the original code. . This sentence makes sense, Although you cannot read only those important books, the five or six books will gradually form the backbone of your knowledge tree. You can refer to this architecture for future things, then put irrelevant things aside. . You can't read all the good books all over the world, so you have to learn how to choose and understand that you cannot read all the books you are interested in and read all the books you are interested in, it is very likely that the boss of the old bookstore on Princeton Street will fall into the ordinary, Because reading too much is not a field of knowledge that you are concerned about, it is just a place for you to spare money.
3. Master tools
At this stage, you must master the language and appropriate tools. To have a foreign language that can be read smoothly, to have another language that can at least understand the title of the article, to learn more, of course, better, but at least one language, english, Japanese, French ...... And so on, you must have a language that can read relevant books very smoothly, this is the minimum premise. Once this tool is unavailable, your field of view will be greatly restricted, because the language is like a skylight. Without this skylight, your room will be closed. Why do you have to understand the title? In this way, you won't have any important articles, but you don't know. If you don't even know the title, you don't know how to find someone to help you or find relevant data on your own. Other tools, whether statistical or any other tool, must be mastered, because you will not have time to learn such tools in the future.
4. Break through the boundaries between disciplines
Interdisciplinary Learning should be considered a very important thing. However, what is involved in interdisciplinary learning must be helpful to your knowledge tree and learn how to take a few shots in other fields, some concepts are taken into other fields, and there is another different inspiration for the problems of concern, but do not spread over anything. Why should I steal those shots? In recent decades, people have discovered that the most innovative part of science or humanities is happening in the subject fair. Why? Because most of our current disciplines were developed in the 19th century of the West, and China lent them again. When the division of these knowledge disciplines was formed in the 19th century, many of them had the ideological and academic background of that era. For example, Dean Li of the research institute specializes in physical chemistry. The reason why he won the Nobel prize is that he is working at the junction of physics and chemistry. For example, if the Nobel Economics Prize has been awarded over the past two decades, the traditional economics prize will be used as an example. Classical Economics will have such a thing, and even psychologists will have won the Nobel economics prize, even the mathematician John Nash won the Nobel economics prize. Why? Because they are all at the junction of disciplines, there is a breakthrough in the junction between disciplines and disciplines, platforms and platforms. It has been searched too many times in the platform itself and in the original core of the discipline, so there may not be much innovation. Therefore, it is very important to learn from different fields.
A master's thesis or doctoral thesis is often the most important and key concept, which is an important concept of unified photography. You usually cannot grasp it in this discipline, because you have been in this discipline for too long, and you have taken photos in this small warehouse with a flashlight for too long, I forget that there are other things that can better explain the phenomena of your materials, but these things can be met and cannot be obtained. John Nash, a mathematician, won the Nobel Prize in mathematics. Why? Why did his doctoral thesis in the competition theory win the Nobel Economic Award in decades? Because of his introduction to economics in the college age, he thought that mathematics could be used for economic consideration. At the beginning, he didn't think it would be so useful. He made breakthroughs at the junction of mathematics and economics. Sometimes there is no big relationship between this part of economics and this part of mathematics, but when the two are combined, sparks will pop up.
5. The thesis subject should be extensible
For a master or doctoral student, if the wrong question is selected, it is a failure, the right question is selected, and there is a chance of 70% victory. This issue deserves consideration from students of the first and second students. Your first year is actually spent on this. You need to constantly discuss with the teacher about finding a meaningful and scalable problem, and it should not be too difficult.. I worked as the director of humanities at the National Science Association. When I left, every time I had seven thousand applications and fourteen thousand bags, I had to send them to fourteen thousand professors for review. Of course I can't see that much, but I have an important task, that is, to view the appeal. "My research plan is very good, and my work is very good, so I will appeal to you .」 The appeal is about 10 percent passed, so my responsibility is to take a look before the formal verdict of the 90% failed case. There are a few of the most impressive things that are often discussed, that is, this question does not have to be done again, and this question itself has no development, therefore, it is very important for me to select a meaningful, extensible, controllable, and operable question.
My students often choose very difficult questions. I said you should never do this, because no one will take a closer look at the difficulty of your research, for difficult questions, you need to spend more time reading historical materials to get a little bit of things. You need to squeeze a lot of things to filter out a little bit of content, so you 'd better choose a difficult and moderate question.
I have written several books, and I think I have the same heart for every book. Although I am not satisfied with writing anything, but in the process, I tried to write it well. So far many people think that my best book is the one I wrote in the year when I was just in my twenties. I didn't spend a long time in that book. Most of the manuscripts in that book were written by me and Xu tieming at the same time in the military camp where I was a soldier, I used my old notes. Many publishers in mainland China have repeatedly asked me to publish my previous books, especially this one. I said, "No .」 Because I used my previous reading notes, I was afraid that the citation was wrong, because in the military camp, I had to perform exercises at any time, gather them at any time, and I had no books at hand, how can I check it properly? If you want me to repeat the school, and because I have cited too many books, I have no efforts to correct them.
Why is this example? I will think about it later. The reason why the book is better is probably that the question is extensible and it is likely to be fluctuating. Many people think that my best book should be the one from Cambridge University, but I think my best book must be written in Chinese, because I can master this language, I cannot master English. When you read and write any Chinese language, you must exercise it until you can take three points at will. Then you can fully understand and understand this language, it means you are still exploring.
Back to what I just talked about, I really want to write every book and every paper. But some things cannot be written. Why? Because the questions selected at the beginning are not good enough. Therefore, all your training and efforts will be valuable only after you select a question. I suggest you, The selection should be done as early as possible. It is best to concentrate on the materials to be processed for the selected questions, not to be too scattered, because the master's students may only have three years, and the doctoral students may only have five years, if your materials are too unconcentrated, it may take most of your time to read or read data, so that you don't have to worry about it. This topic is suitable for your sexual orientation. If you do not have statistics or hate numbers, but choose a paper that relies on statistics, it is impossible to do well. .
6. Develop the writing habits following the academic format
Another basic training is to develop the habit of complying with academic specifications whether you write 10 thousand words, 30 thousand words, or 50 thousand words, that is to say, the footer and format of your paper should be cultivated into a part of your life at the beginning of the postgraduate stage. If this habit is not developed, people will feel that this paper is not rigorous, it will take a lot of time to modify it later, because your paper is very large and may contain hundreds of pages. If you make a mistake at the beginning and then re-start it to the end, it will take a lot of time and effort, therefore, we must get into the habit at the beginning, because we are writing papers rather than essays, there are certain rules on where should be the funny point, where should be the book name, where should I use quotation marks, and what punctuation marks should I use in Chinese, there are many abbreviations in English. When the knowledge of the 1960 s was still very closed, one person came back from the United States and said, "The United States has a terrible situation, because one person is very bad .」 Someone asked him why he couldn't help it. He said, "This is because this person's work is cited everywhere .」 Its name is Ibid. The so-called Ibid is the same as the former author. This word is developed from the latin. There are many abbreviations in Latin, such as et. al., which are jointly edited by the two. The Chicago manual of style is a special description of these writing standards. You must learn Chinese and English writing standards as soon as possible, practice them slowly, and write articles that conform to the standards at the end of the article.
7. Make good use of libraries
The library should be the most important part of the postgraduate stage. You do not have to read every book, but you must know which books are there. I remember that when I was a student, new books would be placed on the walls of the Library. The most important thing for a student is to take a look at the name of the book. To some extent, it is enough to know the book, but it is still different from playing a computer. You need to familiarize yourself with the book, touch it, and take a look at the directory. I know that I can find the title from the computer now, but I still cherish the feeling of regularly going to browse new books, or looking at what the books in related fields look like. One member of the CAS is an information Professor at Harvard University. He told me that he went to their information library every week to read important information journals during his peak creativity. Therefore, the library should be the most familiar place for graduate students. But remember not to take the time to look at it. You live in the age of information flooding, which is different from the age where information is poor, so you are born in this age, make a trade-off. I often look at my students to quote some third-stream papers, but I am very sad for them because I emphasize reading useful and valuable things.
8. Leave time for exquisite thinking
Remember to give yourself some time to think. Whether a thesis can be superb and fascinating is very important for conceptual thinking on the basis of phenomena. But I am not saying that we must take the theoretical line, instead, we will remind you to take two or three more steps at the general level to conceptualize what you see. What do you see? What is the overall meaning? What is the overall profile? Do not be overwhelmed by branches. Although branches are your most important start, you will always have to spend some time to think about and settle down. Conceptualize is a very difficult thing to teach. I remember when I was studying, a teacher vowed to take a course and teach students how to conceptualize, this is very difficult to teach. I would like to remind you that when many materials and branches are drowned, you should jump out and think about the significance of what you see? Is this meaning broadly linked to the knowledge value at a greater level.
Mr. Fu Sinian came to *** and served as the Director of the Institute of Historical languages of the Central Research Institute and the Principal of the Taiwan University. Taida Fu Zhong has 21 rings and 21 hits every hour. There was a man who wrote a book named "bell rings 21", which was quite a sensation at that time. At that time, he explained to the 21-ring question: because the students in Taiwan are very good, the 21-ring question is a salute to welcome the Head of State. Not long ago, I found that Delta had a bronze medal under every important monuments. I took a closer look at Fu zhongxia's explanation and realized that it was because Fu Sinian was a big master and said :「 People only have 21 hours a day, and the other three hours need to be considered .」 That's why we call it "21. I think this sentence makes a lot of sense, but I think there may be too many three hours, because graduate students are very busy, but at least thirty minutes and one hour of thinking every day. Think about what you see? Learn to think at a higher level than what you see.
9. Find a Learning Model
When I first went to the United States to study, every time I wrote a report, it was very difficult because we had three or forty pages of the English report. If we had four courses in one semester, we had one hundred and sixty pages, however, you have to learn from the beginning even with the footer. Later, I found a good way to put my favorite paper next to it every time I want to write it. Although the question he wrote has nothing to do with what I wrote, but every time I see how he writes, see his script, read a few lines, and then I start to write. Just like the most famous man Pavarotti holds a handkerchief when singing an opera, because he said, "going on stage is like hell, so nervous .」 To overcome the tension, he has a habitual movement, that is, holding a white handkerchief. I think the paper was printed like a white handkerchief, so that I can start to write this report well, I learned how to think, how to design, how to take care of the whole, and how to use English as a footer. After reading a master's work, it is the best way to imitate and learn from him. Gradually, you can write your own things. I often encourage my students to go abroad for six months or one year. For example, Guo Ke has various opportunities to expand his horizons. He can know what dishes are being sold in his restaurant and how to get started after returning.
   4. Walk with two legs and practice to cultivate your own interests
Last but not least,That is, our life is two feet, and we are not walking by one foot.When you are a graduate student, you should put all your thoughts on your studies and explore the questions you want to explore. However, it's just your foot, another step is to learn and cultivate one or two interests.. Many people will later find that his right foot is very fat (including myself), because he forgot to cultivate his left foot. Many famous scholars finally fell into extreme mental troubles, because he only trained his right foot and forgot to cultivate his left foot, he forgot to walk with two feet in his life. He lost a small interest or hobby for mediation or dispatching himself.
Hong Kong Asia Weekly visited me last summer. I said, "I don't want to accept the visit. I am not an important person .」 However, they published a simple conversation, in which I only remember one sentence: as a graduate student or a scholar, there are two feelings that are the most important-Sense of Responsibility and guilt. You must have a great sense of responsibility to write good things. If your sense of responsibility is not strong enough, you may feel guilty. If you do not have a good job for a few hours today, there will be a lot of guilt. Unless it is an incredible genius, it will take a lot of effort even if Einstein does. Many very difficult people, he just put all his efforts on the one hundred page, he spent one thousand hours and another person only spent 10 hours, relative, of course, the article written in one thousand hours is better. So why do we need to quickly select a question? If you select a question too late, you can work hard on it for only one year. If you select a question early, you can work on it for two or three years. It is a good thing you have made in three years, or is it a good year? If we have the same talents, we will put all our efforts and thoughts over the past three years, even better than a year.
  5. Create an excellent university and share an academic atmosphere
Many people are discussing what is an excellent university?I think a good university, a majority of school life, and many campus activities are directly or indirectly related to learning. Students talk about it in the cafe, both directly and indirectly are academic issues. The professors eat in the restaurant and talk about "Are there any new discoveries 」? Or which one of the people spoke about important things that day? Only universities immersed in this atmosphere can become excellent universities. The exchange of ideas and knowledge, the atmosphere of mutual education, is not a way to get it if you spend money. I know that money is important, but it is not the only thing. An excellent university, a good university, and a good learning environment indicate that there is a common focus in it. If not, this school cannot become a good university.

 

(Original address: http://blog.renren.com/blog/242339289/326808128)