Being a Graduate Student 145
more of a distraction than a help), but direct reading rarely works, even if you have
used a professional scriptwriter. And, while I am on this topic, when you are speak-
ing never turn your back on the audience. Don’t hide from them; face them, and
make them want to listen to you.
Being a Graduate Student
The primary reason to undertake a graduate degree, particularly a PhD, is to estab-
lish yourself as an effective researcher, but a broader outcome is that a PhD prepares
you for life as an academic. To a lesser extent this is also true of Masters degrees
and minor research theses: completion of a thesis hones your ability to make judg-
ments and work independently, and shows that you have skills that are essential to
success as a researcher.
But being a researcher involves other skills too. Some of these are close to the
core activity of undertaking research, such as refereeing of papers that other re-
searchers have submitted to conferences or journals. Effective refereeing (or re-
viewing) is a genuine challenge. Ideally a referee would be expert in every aspect
of the paper being examined, but in practice this is rarely the case, and often there is
no such expert! Thus the referee can be in the awkward position of having to make
an informed judgment on a paper, while, in all likelihood, knowing less than the
authors about some aspects of the research area. This judgment needs to identify
the flaws that might prevent publication while ensuring that genuine innovation is
recognized rather than ignored due to trivial failings. Another intimidating aspect
of refereeing is that it can involve making a decision about the quality of work of
people who are considerably more experienced than you are.
However, writing of referee reports is excellent training for the task of writing
your thesis’s literature review. You may get to see the reports written by the other
referees, which is usually an interesting experience if only because of the extent
to which referees notice different problems and form contrasting opinions. If the
article is revised, and sent back to the referees for further review, you will have an
opportunity to see how your criticisms are received and responded to—sometimes
these responses will be reasonable, and sometimes they won’t.
Your lack of experience may make the task of reviewing more difficult, but it
should not stop you taking on refereeing assignments. So long as you are honest
about the extent to which you are knowledgeable—and, for example, any diligent
reader can make useful comments about readability or the completeness of a bibli-
ography—the editor will appreciate your efforts.
Teaching is a key academic skill. Acquisition of teaching experience is not a key
part of doing research, but learning to communicate is—and if you plan to continue
in academia, it may be essential to have a track record of teaching. Delivery of lec-
tures or tutorials, development of teaching materials, and related activities such as
one-on-one coaching, are all effective ways of getting feedback on your communi-
cation skills. One thing that I have noticed is that teaching is a great way of building