Whishing you a very merry Christmas

This is the third year that I have to move my things from the office to my bedroom to start a quiet week, concentrate on writing, without the Internet. In 2005, I focused on RTP coursework. In 2006, I rushed to finish a paper before the deadline. This year, I started to check and draw the whole picture of my data analysis... For most research students, Christmas break is also a good time for us to concentrate on something quietly.

There are two pieces of blog relevant sources:

• Web 3.0 and medicine: Make way for the semantic web, a article written by Dean Giustini, BMJ 2007;335:1273-1274 (22 December).
• China's Scientific & Academic Integrity Watch is a blog to expose the many frauds in China's scientific and academic communities. This entry discusses about the critiques from Professor Stephen Stearns of Yale. Plagiarism cases do not only happen in China. But it is awareness, from different perspective, to call people's attention. To some extent, I wouldn't argue that I became more aware of plagiarism and copyright issues after I came to the UK.
  

Some suggests about literature review

The following suggests are selected from «Surviving Your Dissertation: A Comprehensive Guide to Content and Process» (Rudestam, K.E. & Newton, R.R. 2001: 73-74). May be useful for you:

• You’ll know when to stop your literature review when the articles you read become redundant and when the authors and articles that are cited become familiar to you.
• Develop a system for organizing and cataloging what you read.
• Reading the original writings of the theories you are studying, not just what someone else says about their theories. I have found that other people tend misinterpret original writings…Trust yourself before you trust others. Take you time to pinpoint those parts that aren’t completely clear to you, since those are usually higher level thoughts that you need to struggle to understand.
• Bibliographies can be very useful in tracking down new sources.
• It is much easier to record complete references for source materials when you initially read them than later on.

A book about Library 2.0

This is an introduction of the book «Library 2.0 Initiatives in Academic Libraries» by Kathryn Greenhill.

Carl Rogers’s perspectives

Occasionally I found that Carl Rogers’s perspective on educational psychology is interesting. I started to read his books. I read «The Carl Rogers Reader» (Kirschenbaum & Henderson 1990). Really appreciate his positive attitude to interpersonal relationships, especially some of his statements:

• “In my relationships with persons I have found that it does not help, in the long run, to act as though I were something that I am not.” (p.18)
• He described his marriage and two sentences I felt quite impressive. One is “Love is when each person is more concerned for the other than he is for himself” (He adapted from David Frost, p.36) and the other is, “So our growth together into a satisfying relationship for ourselves has constituted no guarantee for our children.” (p.37)
• “I have come to feel that the only learning which significantly influences behavior is self-discovered, self-appropriated learning” (p.302)
• “I find that another way of learning for me is to state my own uncertainties, to try to clarify my puzzlements, and thus get closer to the meaning that my experience actually seems to have.” (p.303)

More writing up...less blogging

I remember a fellow student said he was knackered, two years ago when I was new and he was writing up thesis at the department. I can see why he felt that. Now, sometimes, I feel so too.

Writing, seriously, formally, is never easy, especially for international students. Move back and forth between chapters, sections, logs and data… search my ideas back to almost every past day …

Blogging here is a thing that I almost forget, but I’m kidding, I just do not have too much time on this kind of free, flexible and unserious writing, with a bit social fun …. I got a few interesting blogs…

Tthis is a list of Blawgs from ABA Journal Law News Now. It maybe useful for law students.

How to get PhD and save world from Chris Blattman’s blog. There are some suggestions to PhD students.

Web2.0 and Web 3.0 by Dean Giustini on UBC Academic Search – Google Scholar Blog.

How can I drive more traffic to my blog? may be good for people who maintain a business blog?

Word document and Endnote

The solutions of the two often asked questions about Endnote and Word document can be found on Endnote website.

• Why does the EndNote toolbar in Microsoft Word has disappeared?
• Why are there strange stuff suddenly appeared in my document?

You can also find out solutions about other problems through this webpage.