PhD

Preparation

Before I get started let me quote Einstein, “Intellect…has no personality, it cannot lead. It can only serve”. My interest lies in the field of psychology, sociology and cognitive science. (I shouldn’t be in the School of Informatics ). In Malaysia, once you decided to be in the academics line, the first degree and the higher degrees must be relevant. I know I made mistakes for not taking Psychology course during undergraduate. (well, my wishful thinking is to get Psychology degree in the USA, one day!). And since Human Computer Interaction (HCI), is a multi-disciplinary area, I started to explore the subject.

Any PhD entry requires a proposal. To write a good proposal, I need to reconstruct my English reading and writing as well as delivering what’s in the mind into some sort of communication. In this section of PhD preparation, I would like to share some English basic that I learn during my preparation for GRE exam in the year 2008-2009.

In the GRE attempt I was exposed to the GRE vocabulary building exercise, pinpoint areas of strength and weakness in my reading knowledge and also a bit of comprehension and reasoning skills which could help me to focus on the relevant information once I start graduate school. Learning logical argument is useful because it is the foundation of research and analysis in every field and for the rest of my professional career.

This section forward was mostly copied from the book.

Logic is often defined as “the science of argument”. In this context, an argument does not refer to a verbal skirmish which usually involve shouting, no. An argument as explained in the book is an orderly process of supporting a conclusion with evidence. The conclusion is the main point of the argument and the evidence is the information that supports it. Some common words used to signal evidence are

• Since
• Because
• For
• As
• Due to
• In that

Some common words that signal conclusion are

• Therefore
• Hence
• Thus
• So
• Accordingly
• Consequently
• Ergo

The function that statement serves within an argument is entirely dependent upon context and chain of reasoning. This information is gathered from GRE 2009 book which was bought as an attempt to go to the USA for PhD. What is good about understanding how a logical argument being constructed is that I can easily navigate journal/conference papers and can thoroughly criticize an argument prompt. I will continue this section soon.

Assumptions

Practice spotting assumptions in arguments that you encounter in daily life

When one or more evidence left unstated, that is what we called an assumption. For example: Idyawati lives in Labuan. Therefore, Idyawati is eccentric. The only statement that would provide the necessary link between the stated evidence and the stated conclusion is “Anyone who lives in Labuan is eccentric”. The statement should be:

Idyawati lives in Labuan.

Anyone who lives in Labuan is eccentric.

Therefore, Idyawati is eccentric.

Validity, Truth and Soundness

Validity refers to the strength of the structure of an argument, whereas truth refers to the factual verifiability of the evidence and the conclusion. An argument that is both valid and true is said to be sound.