To everyone in class. Thank you. This has been a really insighful group. Ive grown acustomed to reading textbooks and learning from lectures as a standard class format. I think the most important knowledge I've recieved from this class was from listerning to your reactions, suggestions, and comment on this literature. I hope to have this type class with you all again.

I would like to say that I have really appreciated this class.  Every reading we did was well worth it, and the discussions in class ranged from being pleasant to eye-opening.  Thanks, Lorne and Terry! 

I believe we have so wonderful faculties who can help make interaction with candidates so that advise important feedback and help effective communication in SIST at CGU. We can make it like David’s stuff.

I came across something very interesting recently and if proper I’d like to use it as my dissertation topic. But I’m still considering several topics. Fortunately, it must be at least a year from now before I’d have to decide my topic. I suppose I still have plenty of time. Anyway, the book is a very timely and useful reading.

Several things that impress me most: first, we should back up our data, records, notes, and write ups regularly to avoid unexpected events.  Both my friend and I had this kind of experience before.  My friend mistakenly deleted her one-year-effort code permanently for her dissertation and had to restart from the scratch; when I did my first thesis, I encountered a virus that prevented me using any application I had on my laptop.  I ended up buying RAMs and spending a whole week to fight the virus.  Therefore, it is extremely important that we store an extra copy of everything in another place to reduce the harm from accidents or disasters. 

Second, the writer’s block problem bothered me before when I wrote my term paper or thesis.  Professors, TAs (Sue, etc), and the book all suggest that the most successful or best approach to overcome this problem is simply to start writing.  A Chinese old saying also says that “a thousand miles starts from the first step”.   I keep this in mind and will try to practice it as much possible as I can.  

Third, the author suggested writing a dissertation from the mid sections of chapters as work is being done instead of a linear way from the very beginner.   This is very helpful to me because now I realize the first introduction section will change and need revisiting as the later juicy work becomes flashed and finalized.

On a whole, this book is a wonderful book that covers most of the situations and concerns during dissertation development and provides useful advices concisely and encouragingly.

The papers selected for this course provided good review practice in determining what makes a good paper.  We have developed our ability to determine why the articles were published, the main criterion is that it is related to IT and presents new information.