如何写一篇优秀的博士学位论文

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最近读文章成了习惯，对各种各样的文风也有了一定的心得体会。

我最喜欢中国人或日本人写的论文，因为英语不是母语，所以字里行间总是有一份如影随形的拘谨客气，不敢像欧美教授那样放开手脚洋洋洒洒地铺排漂亮的长达两三行不带标点符号喘个气的长句子。来自英语为母语国家的论文，要是年代再稍微久远一点，用词再古雅一点，很容易就让我这样低阶英语水准的人扑街。

但两方面都有例外。上周的一篇讲述硅谷1980年代末公司间网络的文章，出自加州大学伯克利分校AnnaLee Saxenian教授，文笔浅白干净，堪称行云流水，我一口气读完简直幸福到要流泪，当天心情大好，多买了一支冰激凌吃。（所以你看从来不是“百无一用是书生”，文章写得好也可以直接促进实体经济发展）

而今天读一篇认识的华人教授写的论文，感觉很是吃力。句子写作爱炫技不说，内容本涉及一些现成的概念，却偏偏爱新用模糊的大词去重赋定义。第一遍看去，令人茫然不知所云；第二遍再根据细节加上自己的理解，方才得以继续阅读。

休息的时候，在网上看到另一篇短文，作者是Avinash C. Kak，普渡大学电气和计算机工程系教授，在信息处理领域进行过一系列开创性研究。原文标题为Some Thoughts on What it Takes to Produce a Good Ph.D. Thesis（《关于如何写一篇优秀的博士学位论文的一些想法》），目测是Kak教授于2012年12月14日下午7：46分所作的演讲摘要。这篇文章不但对我构思自己的论文很有帮助，还直接毫不留情地批评了许多现象，令我大舒胸臆，非分享以飨亲朋不可。

以下是Kak教授的文章，中文部分为本人翻译。错漏之处，敬请指正。

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This presentation is dedicated to the fact that .....

本次报告想要谈的是……

..... in the best of relationships between a professor and a graduate student, the student strives to show the professor why the professor is not as smart as the professor considers himself/herself to be, and the professor strives to show the student why the student is actually smarter than the student believes himself/herself to be.

……教授和研究生之间的最佳关系，是学生拼命去证明，为什么教授不像他/她自己认为的那样睿智；而教授拼命去证明，为什么实际上学生比他/她自己认为的要聪明。

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DIFFERENT PHASES OF PH.D. RESEARCH

博士研究的不同阶段

• finding a good problem

找到一个好问题

• staying on top of the literature

博览群书

• getting plugged into the broader research community

挤进大型研究社

• communication of research results through oral presentations and writing

通过口头报告和书面撰写，交流研究结论

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FINDING A GOOD PROBLEM

找到一个好问题

This is probably the most stress inducing phase of the whole program.

这是整个过程中最有压力的引导阶段。

How does one go about finding a good problem?

如何才能找到一个好问题呢？

• Ask your major professor

问你的指导教授

• Ask your office mate

问你的工作同事

• Read the tea leaves

占卜

• Ask your mom

问你的妈妈

• .....

In my mind, the correct answer is: None of the options listed on the previous slide.

我认为，正确的答案是：以上皆非。

To appreciate my answer, you have to get to the bottom of what engineering research is fundamentally about.

你得了解“工程研究本质上是什么”，才能明白我的意思。

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WHAT DOES RESEARCH IN ENGINEERING REALLY MEAN

工程研究的真实涵义 

Basically, engineering research is about

本质上，“工程研究”是：

...... observing and understanding the world around you with regard to how things work now and how they could be made to work better.

……观察并理解你周围的世界中事情是如何运行的，它们怎样才能运行得更好。

..... discovering the current best practice in your area and pushing that to a higher level of performance.

发现你周围目前已有的最优解，推动它更上层楼。

..... bringing together two hitherto disparate threads of engineering knowledge and creating a new thread for study and analysis.

将两种目前迥异的工程知识结合到一起，创造一种新的学习和分析方法。

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HOW DOES ONE DISCOVER A GOOD PROBLEM

如何发现一个好问题

In order to discover a good problem .....

为了发现一个好问题……

.......... you have to first push yourself to the current state of the art, before you can advance the state of the art.

……在你能引领技术潮流之前，你必须鞭策自己了解现有技术。

Are there any strategies for rapidly pushing oneself to the current state of the art?

是否存在什么策略，可以迅速推动自己了解现有技术呢？

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STRATEGY FOR DISCOVERING THE STATE OF THE ART

了解现有技术的策略

In engineering research, I believe that the best strategy is to actually try to do a state-of-the-art experiment.

在工程研究中，我认为最好的策略就是去实际操作一项关于现有技术的实验。

If you want to discover a good problem to work on in any area of engineering, there does not exist a faster way to get to the state of the art than creating your own implementation for a core problem in that area.

如果你想在工程领域发现一个好问题，那么就去给一个核心问题创造你自己的解决办法，除此之外别无捷径。

For example, let’s say you want to understand the state of the art in information retrieval from large software libraries.

比如说，你想要了解在大型软件库中信息检索的现有技术。

There are probably a couple of hundred papers now that have been published on the subject of information retrieval from software libraries.

可能已经存在数以百计的相关论文。

These papers use a variety of methods that range from static source code analysis to the construction of statistical models of the source code libraries using techniques developed by folks in information retrieval from large text corpora.

这些论文囊括了各种方法，从静态源代码分析，到基于大型文本信息检索科技的源代码库数据统计建模。

You could spend a couple of years trying to read all these papers, but by the time you are done, there will be another 100 papers to read.

你可以花数年时间去通读这些论文，但当你读完了，你会发现（这段时间里）又多了100篇新论文要读。

If, instead of chasing at the outset all the papers that are out there, you create your own retrieval engine, you are much more likely to get a good feel for the state of the art (even if your own implementation is rather crude compared to the best out there).

如果，不去追逐这些源源不断出来的论文，而是去创造自己的检索引擎，你会更有可能接触到最新科技（即使你自己的解决办法比不上优秀论文）。

The process of creating your own implementation will give you deep intuitions that would be hard to acquire by just reading the literature.

这个“创造自己的解决办法”的过程，会使你养成一种深邃的直觉，这可不是仅仅阅读文献能够获得的。

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MAKING EFFICIENT YOUR PROBLEM DISCOVERY PHASE

让你的“发现问题阶段”更有效率

It is much more efficient if the problem discovery phase is experiment-driven as opposed to literature-driven. What you read in the literature should be dictated by your current experimental obsession, as opposed to the other way around.

由实作驱动的“发现问题阶段”比阅读文献为主的方式更有效率。你读文献，应该是为了解决你目前实验中遇到的困难，而不是去找问题。

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STAYING ON TOP OF THE LITERATURE

博览群书

This is probably the most traumatic phase of the whole program.

这大概是整个过程中最令人受伤的阶段。

Much technical literature is poorly written, designed more to hide than to reveal, designed more to obfuscate than to clarify, designed to gain short term recognition, etc. ∗

许多科技文献写得很糟糕，遮遮掩掩、云山雾罩、晦涩难懂，为了获得短期知名度等等。∗

In other words, much technical literature is written with motives that are less than noble.

换句话说，许多科技文献的写作目的没有那么高尚。

How does one cope?

你能怎么办呢？

∗ If you believe that scientists and researchers are a nobler breed than most, you are mistaken.

如果你相信科学家和研究员比其他绝大多数人更不藏私，那么你就错了。

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MY STRATEGIES FOR COPING WITH THE LITERATURE GLUT

我应对文献“盛宴”的策略

Every engineering contribution is based on assumptions about the real world. When I look at a new paper, my first attempt is to quickly extract those assumptions. If I find those assumptions excessively unrealistic, I do not pay much further attention to the paper.

每一篇工程文献都应是基于对真实世界的假设。当我读论文，首先会去提取那些“假设”。一旦我发现那些假设完全不符合现实，我就不会再在这论文上浪费时间。

I read papers to seek out their limitations. But some authors do a great job of hiding the limitations.

我读论文，会去发现他们的局限性。但是有些作者很厉害，把局限藏了起来。

Sometimes I discount papers if I have already written the authors off in my mind.

有时候，如果我已经在心里给某些作者判了“死刑”，我就不去读他们的论文。

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GETTING TO THE BOTTOM OF A RESEARCH PAPER

“探底”论文

In a face-to-face interaction (even by e-mail sometimes), people are more likely to tell you about the limitations of their work, limitations that they did not mention in their written papers.

在面对面的交流（有时候甚至是通过电子邮件）中，人们会更愿意告诉你他们的研究局限——那些论文中没有提到的东西。

In any case, if your overall research effort is experiment driven (as opposed to literature driven), you are much more likely to spot the limitations in the papers written by other people.

无论如何，如果你进行实际操作为主导的研究（而不是阅读他人文献为主导），那么你更有可能发现别人文献中的研究局限。

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GETTING PLUGGED INTO THE BROADER RESEARCH COMMUNITY

挤进大型研究社

This is probably the most frustrating phase of the whole program.

这是整个过程中最打击人的阶段。

Every research area has its in-group. People who are already on the inside make it difficult for people from the outside to break in.

每一个研究领域都有“内团体”。已经在这个圈子里的人会让外面的人很难进来。

Research communities operate like small tribes, with each tribe considering itself to be the keeper of the truth.

研究社就像一个个小型部落，每一个部落都认为自己是真理的守护者。

Each tribe creates its own rules for what separates mediocrity from excellence. Unfortunately, there is much subjectivity in the application of the rules, with favors implicitly granted

to those on the inside.

每一个部落都创造了自己评判平庸和优秀的规则。不幸的是，这些规则应用起来其实很主观，暗中偏私内部成员。

There is another important reason for getting plugged into a research community:

提倡进入研究社，还有一个更重要的原因：

The research program of the funding agencies is determined to a great extent by the collective debate that takes place within research communities. So if you want funding for your research, you must become a part of the debate.

在很大程度上，资助机构的研究计划取决于研究社内的团体辩论。所以如果你想要获得研究资助，你就必须参与辩论。

Moreover, everyone needs recommendation letters when you are trying to get a new job, or when you come up for tenure, promotion, etc.

而且，每一个人在换新工作、申请教职、谋求晋升的时候，都需要别人给你写推荐信。

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PROGRESSIVE STEPS FOR BREAKING INTO A NEW RESEARCH COMMUNITY

“破冰”进入一个新研究社的步骤

• Actively participating in conferences and workshops in order to become noticed.

积极参与会议和研讨会，混成熟脸。

• Expressing verbal interest in other people's work at conferences and workshops and following that up with e-mail interaction.

在会议和研讨会上对他人的工作表示兴趣，随后用e-mail保持联系。

• Forming friendships and collaboration with researchers from other institutions.

和其他研究机构的研究员成为朋友和工作伙伴。

• Volunteering to help out with workshops.

研讨会上自愿帮忙。

• Volunteering to organize workshops.

自愿帮忙组织研讨会。

• Volunteering to help out with conferences.

会议上自愿帮忙。

• Volunteering to organize conferences.

自愿帮忙组织会议。

• Volunteering to help out with journal refereeing.

自愿帮忙期刊审稿。

• etc.

等等。

Here is a guideline for those Ph.D candidates who want to work in universities:

这儿有一份指南，给想在高校工作的博士候选人：

During the last third of a Ph.D program, about a third of your mental focus should be on the research world outside.

在读博士的最后三分之一时期，起码有三分之一的精力应该放在研究之外的世界。

During this period a lot of your energy has to go into forming friendships (they will be your future collaborators) with people on the outside.

在这段时期内你必须与人们（你未来的同事）打好关系。

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COMMUNICATING RESEARCH RESULTS THROUGH ORAL PRESENTATIONS AND WRITING

通过口头报告和书面撰写，传播研究结论

Ability to express ideas precisely and unambiguously is a key to success in all human endeavors, particularly so in research.

精确、无异义地表达观点，是所有事业成功的要素。做研究尤甚。

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WRITING IS CENTRAL TO GOOD RESEARCH

写作是优秀研究的核心

A Ph.D. is, as the degree says, a doctorate in philosophy, a doctorate in ideas, a degree that requires that the chosen ideas be articulated precisely and with rigor.

博士，就像这个学位的含义那样，是哲学之士，思辨之士。这个层次要求，论文的构想被精确严格地清晰表达。

Moreover, writing imposes a discipline on thinking. Every time you write something down, you are committing yourself to a position. The act of making that commitment forces you to examine with care what it is that you are writing.

而且，写作可为思考提供总体原则。每一次你落笔，都是在书写你的履历。这促使你写作时字斟句酌、如履薄冰。

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POST PH.D LIFE

博士后生涯

Post Ph.D. life in industry

博士后在工业界的生涯

Post Ph.D. life in a research university

博士后在研究型大学的生涯

Post Ph.D life in a non-research university

博士后在非研究型大学的生涯

There is world of a difference between these three lifestyles. This is not to say that any one particular post Ph.D existence is better than the other two.

这三种生活截然不同，也没有哪一种比另外两种更好。

If you are not sufficiently self-aware to know where you belong among these three possibilities, you could end up frustrated and with a lot of emotional and other problems down the road.

但是如果你不能想明白你要选哪一种，你将会落落寡欢、饱受挫折。

The more than 40 Ph.D.’s that I have produced populate all three categories.

我曾带过40多个博士生，他们的选择不一，涵盖了这三种。

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FINALLY ...

最后……

Practically all research consists of incremental advances over the state of the art.

实际上，所有的研究都包含在现有技术之上的微小进步。

Even the most stunning developments are stunning only from the outside. To those on the inside, they are practically always incremental.

即使是那些在外界看来惊才绝艳的重大突破，在内行人眼里，其实也只是微小的进步。

In rare cases, when they seem stunning on the inside, it is because someone injected a brand new approach (from what was until then an unrelated area) into a problem domain.

在一些极少的情况下，内行也为之震惊，那是因为有人将一种崭新的方法（从一种毫不相关的领域）引入了这个问题领域。

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