# Grad School Essentials  ## Metadata - Author: [[Zachary Shore]] - Full Title: Grad School Essentials - Category: #books ## Highlights - If you have the time, you should certainly read a work in full. That’s what I do. But I also use this method first. I jump around inside the text until I have a strong grasp of the author’s main point. Only then do I go back and read the text more fully. ([Location 181](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=181)) - In some undergraduate courses, and in most graduate ones, you will be quickly overwhelmed by the amount of reading. If you try to read every word of every book assigned, you will drown. You will not sleep. You will not eat. Instead, you will become one of the many Book Zombies— ([Location 229](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=229)) - HOW TO READ ACTIVELY Step 1. Analyze the title and subtitle. Step 2. Scrutinize the table of contents. Step 3. Read the last section first. Step 4. Read the introduction. Step 5. Target the most important chapters of the book, or sections of an article. Your most useful tactic in this process: restate what you have read in your own words and write it down. Always remember: restate and write down. ([Location 235](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=235)) - You are searching now for that one golden paragraph, the one that contains the big idea, crisply summarized. When you find that paragraph, restate it in your own words. There is no technique more important than restating the ideas you read in your own words and then writing them down. ([Location 281](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=281)) - There are only two ways we prove points in scholarship: through empirics and through logic. Empirics are the tangible bits of evidence we can assemble: ([Location 322](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=322)) - Even though we cannot at this early stage be certain of the question and thesis, we are zeroing in on them much faster than if we had read passively, one sentence after the next, starting at the beginning, without ever restating the key passages in our own words. This method is therefore saving you time and heightening your comprehension. ([Location 568](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=568)) - I would like you to get to the point where you can extract an author’s question, thesis, and larger aim within fifteen minutes. ([Location 574](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=574)) - The most essential aspects of active reading are as follows: • Read for thesis, not just content. • Search for and critique each thesis. • Use the five-step process to locate and assess the author’s question, thesis, and key evidence. • Identify if possible the author’s larger aim. • Use titles, subtitles, chapter titles, and subheadings as clues to identify the thesis. • Restate and write down in your own words what each important sentence means. • Restate topic sentences and skip paragraphs that reiterate or elaborate on ideas you have already grasped. • Condense complex sentences by isolating the subject, verb, and object. Book Zombies will eat your brains if you read passively. They’ll also wreck your academic experience. Defeat them by engaging a text. Restating key passages in your own words is one of your most powerful weapons against confusion. And as your active reading improves, you’ll be able to write and speak with clarity and force. As you proceed through any scholarly text, your five-step process, combined with your tactic of restating and writing down, will do more than just allow you to locate the author’s question, thesis, key evidence, and larger aim. It will also ease your way to critiquing the text, which is what we’ll focus on next. ([Location 613](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=613)) - WHAT IS A CRITIQUE? A critique is an analysis of the author’s arguments. It is a rigorous, probing test of the soundness of the author’s claims. Ultimately, either the arguments hold up, or they fall apart, or more likely some of them hold up and some fall apart. Your job is to determine the work’s strengths and weaknesses. ([Location 653](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=653)) - bear-baiting, bareknuckle fighting, freak shows, casual torture, wanton cruelty to animals, the burning of heretics, Jim Crow laws, human sacrifice, family feuding, public and intentionally painful methods of execution, deforming corseting, infanticide, laughing at the insane, executions for minor crimes, eunuchism, flogging, public cigarette smoking. ([Location 744](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=744)) - THE RECAP • A critique is not a complaint. • A critique is not a book report: a reiteration of what the author wrote. • A critique is a rigorous analysis of the author’s thesis: its strengths as well as its weaknesses. • Strong critiques only discuss what the author failed to do if that omission is essential to our understanding of the subject. To make a strong critique, do the following: • Isolate the thesis in a single clear statement. • List the main premises and conclusion in simple clear statements. • Identify the main assumptions on which each premise rests. • Ask whether the conclusion follows logically from the premises. ([Location 831](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=831)) ## New highlights added July 25, 2023 at 4:53 PM - You will make your sentences sing, sparkle, and shine more brightly if you favor the active over the passive. Don’t eliminate all passive constructions; just try to use them only when it seems sensible to do so. ([Location 1062](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=1062)) - Most student papers waffle on for paragraphs and pages, interminably blathering around the topic without ever getting to the point. I’ll call this problem the Bartender’s Burden. ([Location 1079](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=1079)) - I’ll stress the fact that scholarship is not, in fact, about rhetoric. It is not, as some mistakenly believe, an exercise in persuasion, in which the one who argues her case best is the one who wins the day. Scholarship is instead a search for truth. Your job is to ask the right questions and discover the right answers. ([Location 1146](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=1146)) - Use the Columbo Principle. Tell us your question and answer in the first paragraph. That way we’ll know (and you’ll also know) exactly what you’re trying to say. • Say something surprising. Don’t just tell us what everyone already knows. If you must conclude the obvious, tell us something new about an old idea. • Use any of the three formulas for opening paragraphs. Formula 1: question in first sentence. Formula 2: thesis in first sentence. Formula 3: engaging anecdote in first or second paragraph, followed by question and thesis.    They might make your writing formulaic, but that’s okay in the beginning. As you grow more comfortable and confident, you can branch out into more creative means. • Use subheadings for structure. These will help you organize your own ideas while also guiding readers through the course of your argument. • Employ Orwell’s rules, but with my caveats. No rule should ever be obeyed mindlessly. Use them only when it is sensible to do so, and you must be the judge. • Avoid the Bartender’s Burden, and get to the bloody point. Do these simple things, and your ideas will transmit magically from your brain to the reader’s mind. And the secret to the magic trick is clarity. ([Location 1157](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=1157)) - “I’d like to piggyback on what Bob just said.” And then you make the point in your own words, acknowledging that it is similar to Bob’s point, but stressing the slight difference. ([Location 1274](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=1274)) - Other useful words include: underscore amplify modify highlight qualify elaborate on ([Location 1276](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=1276)) ## New highlights added July 26, 2023 at 4:53 AM - Step 1. Formulate your thesis. Step 2. Write it all out. Step 3. Rehearse it alone. Step 4. Rehearse in front of others. Step 5. Get feedback and begin again. ([Location 1297](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=1297)) - Hook them at the start. Enumerate your points. Flag the transitions. Conclude with a Twist. And for those who feel especially relieved when they finish, you can add a Y at the end: Yodel for joy that you survived the experience. ([Location 1352](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=1352)) - ENUMERATE YOUR POINTS Immediately after your opening hook, or in lieu of it if you choose not to use a hook, try enumerating the points you plan to make. For example, say something like: I want to do four things today. 1. Summarize the author’s main argument. 2. Illuminate the key assumptions underlying the thesis. 3. Identify the key evidence that the author uses to support her case. 4. Critique the thesis by explaining its two principal flaws. ([Location 1366](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=1366)) - Craft a powerful hook at the start. • Enumerate the points you plan to make. • Flag the transitions clearly by stating when you are beginning a new section of the talk: i.e., “This brings me to part two.” • Conclude not only by summarizing your arguments, but also by adding something new, something that links your presentation to a larger issue. Clear structure aids clear thinking. As your technique improves, you’ll be surprised how true this is. ([Location 1443](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=1443)) - not think of your advisor as your friend, your boss, your colleague, your parent, or any other figure. Instead, think of yourself as an apprentice to a tradesman. Your job is to learn a particular craft. ([Location 1508](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=1508)) - short, you cannot expect your advisor to be a skilled mentor. You will have to take the initiative if you want to learn her craft. ([Location 1531](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=1531)) - If your professor cannot or will not explain a concept to you in the way you need, seek out someone else who can. This might mean contacting other grad students, other professors in your department, or scholars outside your university. Take help wherever you can find it. ([Location 1541](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=1541)) - • Treat the relationship with your advisor as one between apprentice and craftsman. • Don’t be a poser. If you don’t understand something, seek out the explanation. • Accept criticism with equanimity. • Maintain professional boundaries with professors. • Stay positive whenever sensible to be so. • Cultivate relationships with possible protectors—the professors who will help you in times of need. ([Location 1753](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=1753)) - Because it is extremely hard to make an original contribution, not everyone can write a doctoral dissertation. ([Location 1792](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=1792)) - Put simply, your goal is to answer a meaningful question. That sounds straightforward enough, but you would be surprised by two things. First, many people don’t grasp that the question must be meaningful. It must lead to an answer that advances our knowledge of something that genuinely matters. ([Location 1815](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=1815)) - The topic is the general area you are investigating. ([Location 1819](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=1819)) - You need to be able to say: my topic is X; my question is Y; and my answer (or thesis) is Z. Boom, boom, boom. No hesitation, no hemming and hawing. Just clear, crisp, polished statements. ([Location 1834](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=1834)) - 2. FIVE-STEP QUESTION-FINDING PROCESS 1. Ask the experts. 2. Get the two most recent books on your subject. 3. Get the next ten most recent books on your subject. 4. Ask if they make sense. 5. Ask the experts again. ([Location 1881](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=1881)) - The best place to start in your search for a question is to talk with the people who know the literature best, who should be your professors. Think of them as living literature reviews. They should be able to rattle off some of the outstanding questions in your field. At the very least, they should be able to point you toward the most important recent works, in which you can find a discussion of such questions. If your professor hands you a question, you’re in luck. If not, and in fact even if she does, you should still go through the following steps. ([Location 1887](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=1887)) - Eventually (and probably in less time than you suspect, if you use the reading method I described) you will come upon a question that is both important and needing further explanation. ([Location 1919](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=1919)) - Whatever the field, the candidate is expected to tell us something we didn’t know before—and be right. ([Location 1974](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=1974)) - Never relegate yourself into irrelevance by studying the obscure. Always link your question to something larger—meaning something truly significant. ([Location 1982](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=1982)) - On the other hand, the most interesting theses are the ones where you honestly don’t know the answer and you are surprised by what you discover. Those are the most compelling works to write as well as read. So please keep an open mind about your question. ([Location 2088](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=2088)) - Know the difference between your topic, your question, and your answer. • Articulate each in a single, crisp, clear sentence. • Know that questions are meant to fill gaps in our understanding. • Use the five-step process to find your question. • Compress your question into eight words or fewer. • Link your question to something larger. • Never draw your conclusions before doing the research. • Let your questions guide your sources. • Confront counterevidence directly. • Make a clear and convincing case. ([Location 2144](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=2144)) - I feel that the world must know the answer to the questions I’ve been exploring, and I have to get this information out there. ([Location 2165](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=2165)) - This is the kind of drive that should power your research. You should be excited by the quest. You should truly love reading, writing, speaking, and thinking about your question. And you should yearn, yes yearn, to discover an important truth. ([Location 2167](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=2167)) ## New highlights added September 12, 2023 at 11:39 PM - Book Title: Breeding Bin Ladens: America, Islam, and the Future of Europe (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006). Topic: Muslim integration into European society. Question: Why were European and American governments alienating Muslims? Thesis: They failed to understand European Muslims’ ambivalence, not antipathy, about perceived mainstream Western values. Book Title: Blunder: Why Smart People Make Bad Decisions (Bloomsbury, 2008). Topic: Decision making in international conflict. Question: Why do people shoot themselves in the foot? Thesis: Specific, recurrent, rigid mindsets ensnare decision makers. Book Title: A Sense of the Enemy: The High-Stakes History of Reading Your Rival’s Mind (Oxford University Press, 2014). Topic: Enemy assessments in twentieth-century international conflict. Question: What produces strategic empathy? Thesis: One key to strategic empathy comes not from the enemy’s pattern of past behavior, but from his behavior at pattern breaks. ([Location 1936](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01655O0O0&location=1936))