Below is a complete list of posts to help you to find what you need quickly and easily…
Thesis (Report) Writing Advice:
- Writing your thesis or report – where to start? (It all begins with an outline.)
- Say – what the heck is a paragraph anyway? (The essential building block – learn how to do it right.)
- The “four drafts” approach to speed writing (Save hours of time by approaching it methodically.)
- Consistency – an important step in the preening process (Without this – you don’t make sense.)
- Content preening – or how NOT to torture your reader (It’s not a novel – don’t use a narrative style.)
- Using figures and tables effectively (Essential things everyone should know.)
- How to write your Introduction, Abstract and Summary (There are specific rules you must follow.)
- Referencing (or how to avoid plagiarizing)… (If you didn’t invent it – you have to cite it.)
- In-text citations and references sections (…how to present your references and citations.)
How to do a Literature Review:
- Step 1 – Finding Stuff
- Step 2 – Organizing and Screening
- Step 3 – Normalizing
- Step 4 – Writing it Up
Academic Letters and Emails:
The Job Search:
- How to write an effective (job-seeking) cover letter
- Résumé tips for the new (or soon to be) graduate
Writing a Winning Scholarship Proposal:
Creating an Effective Presentation:
- Overview – General Tips
- Conference Presentations – Preparation
- Conference Presentations – Delivery
- Defense Presentations (coming soon)
- Tablet teaching tips
- Referencing (or how to avoid plagiarizing)…
Coming soon…
- Designing awesome conference posters
- Preparing an application package that will help you to get you that academic position
- Interviewing tips for aspiring academics
Suggestions are welcome! If there is a topic you would like to see covered on this blog – please use the comment feature to let me know. Thanks!
The Art of Scientific Communication 
September 17, 2012 at 8:14 pm
[…] for university students in science and engineering – by Faye Hicks, PhD, PEng HomeAboutComplete List of Posts RSS ← How to write to a prospective […]
November 30, 2012 at 9:07 am
Hello ma’am,
I found your blog while searching for tips to write a letter to a potential research supervisor, and I found the points you’ve made very, very helpful. The topics you’ve chosen to write about here are all those that come in very useful in one’s academic/professional career, and the level of detail in each post is amazing. Thank you so much!
November 30, 2012 at 9:15 am
Thank-you! 🙂
December 1, 2012 at 12:37 pm
[…] Complete List of Posts […]
June 2, 2013 at 11:15 pm
Hello Prof Faye,
I would like to express my appreciation for the great effort and time that you dedicate for publishing such precious words. It was so helpful and powerful. I fell like I should be aware about these topics long time ago. I will be glad as well if you may kindly tell us your wise opinion about “Academic Publications”. Thank you in advance.
have a nice peaceful day.
June 6, 2013 at 7:49 pm
Hi there – thanks for the kind words. I’d be happy to write something on that. Are there some specific aspects you’re looking for advice on?
August 29, 2013 at 6:44 pm
Hello Professor Hicks! I’ve just been reading your blog posts- they are very helpful, thank you for taking time to write them! 🙂 I’m an incoming MSc student (in Psychology at a UK uni), and my uni wants me to declare my dissertation topic and supervisor 3 weeks after the official term start date. I’ve found your post on “How to write to prospective supervisors” very helpful! To complement that, I was hoping that you could do a post/ advise on what prospective students (masters, phd, etc) should consider before picking a supervisor. I was fortunate to have fantastic supervisors during my undergrad years (really more luck than anything I did actually!) but I’d rather not just rely on luck for my master’s year 😛
Thank you, and have a nice day!
August 31, 2013 at 8:49 am
Thanks Ling – glad you’ve found them helpful!
Thanks for suggesting a post topic – I will give it some thought and see if I can come up with something. 🙂
September 8, 2013 at 12:03 pm
Hi again – check out todays’ post. Hope you find it helpful!
September 19, 2013 at 2:39 am
Can’t wait to read the post about designing conference posters!
September 20, 2013 at 8:36 am
Thanks Izabella – I’ll try to do it soon!
June 15, 2014 at 1:02 pm
Hi! I wonder if you have any thoughts on preparing a single slide that summarizes your research? A new challenge for participants in the Plant Bioinformatics workshops at the JCVI.
June 27, 2014 at 5:45 am
Hi there – sorry for the delay responding – I just moved and was out of touch for a few weeks. That’s a hard question as it can be so topic specific. However, I will try to come up with something in a future post.
October 29, 2014 at 12:17 pm
Thank you indeed Dear Professor Faye Hicks. Your posts are very worthy 🙂
November 5, 2014 at 7:15 am
Thanks – glad you liked them! 🙂
November 4, 2014 at 1:36 pm
Dr. Hicks, Thank you for all these useful posts. I have read all the posts. I am currently applying for the graduate program. Please, if you kindly cover the topic about how to write the best Statement of Purpose (SOP) for applying the graduate program with a format and example, it will be very helpful.
Thank you Ma’am.
November 5, 2014 at 7:18 am
That’s a great suggestion, Aniruddha – I must admit though, I am not sure what to suggest for this. I have always found these SOPs painfully boring to read and never put much stock in them as a result. Clearly they are important to some professors or they wouldn’t be asking for them but I really don’t know what they are looking for. I will do some research on it and see what I can find.
April 8, 2015 at 4:47 am
I’ve found your blog while attempting to write my dissertation! It’s been really useful, so thank you so much! I really appreciate it!
April 12, 2015 at 2:22 am
Thanks for visiting – so glad you found it useful!
October 25, 2015 at 12:41 am
Dear Mam,
Thank you so much for advise on writing to a prospective PhD supervisor. I am just thinking of applying for my PhD in Management, and It’ll go a long way into helping me achieve that.
Stay blessed! 🙂
November 1, 2015 at 5:06 am
So glad you found it useful! Best of luck!
October 25, 2015 at 12:08 pm
Hello
I did MBA(Finance)/MS (Finance) and also published one research paper in 2015..I want to take admission in PhD but due to some financial problem it not possible for me any more. Please guide me or give me any idea if there is any scholarship for international students. i belong to Pakistan.. Final degree completed in September, 2015 .
November 1, 2015 at 5:13 am
Sorry – I can’t give you any specific leads as I have a very different specialty. My advice is to search out some programs at specific universities and see what they have to offer financially. Most universities provide funding information on their Faculty of Grad Studies web site. Individual department web sites also may provide such information specific to their programs. There is no shortcut to this I’m afraid – it takes some diligent research. Good luck!
November 2, 2015 at 10:22 pm
Hello,
Can u plz from where to start research and how a new student who is doing research for the first time can select the topic. My specialization is finance and now i have to start thesis and i am facing problems in election of topic. Thanks
November 12, 2015 at 3:04 pm
Sorry – I can give you specific advice as I have a totally different specialty. You should talk to you professor(s) to get specific advice like this. Best of luck!
November 9, 2015 at 2:33 am
Hi Mam. Kindly Post some stuff about writing an effective motivational letter:) Thanks in advance..!!
November 12, 2015 at 3:05 pm
Sorry – I don’t really know what you are referring to. Can you be more specific?
November 17, 2017 at 2:10 pm
This was so useful for me! Thank you for all of your recommendations. I’m wondering how to respond the the potential adviser after they respond to you. Should I ask about their research or what they seek in students?
November 20, 2017 at 11:59 am
Great question – I think I would keep it short and ask him/her what the next steps will be. You could also ask them if there is anything you could do to prepare. Good luck!