Get it done first, then get it right

When I was pursuing my PhD at Warwick Institute of Education, I always kept what Prof David Wray taught me: “get it written before getting it right”.

I documented my written progress, especially when I modified or change my research design, as shown in the following figure. I changed 10 times in my PhD, before finding what I actually wanted to study. However, the difference between a lot of PhD students and me is: I worked rapidly at the first 6 months of PhD. According to my supervisors and seniors, the changes I made might take 2 years of other students. My secret was: I read a lot during first 6 months, and I asked a lot of questions to myself and others. 

I found most of graduate students or potential graduate students facing writing block, in fact, that happens to me once a while. 

So, to prospective graduate students who do not have a specific topic or scope of study, I may offer a tentative topic or scope for him or her to start with. 

Now I start to see the benefits of the US PhD education system: students typically spend 2.5 years taking courses, and develop a scope and topic of interests along this period, while getting exposure to most if not all generic research methods—quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods, design-based research, action research, etc. With these intensive exposure and experience, graduate students should be able to develop himself or herself and prepare a solid thesis at the end of the 5th year.