The Last Lecture Randy Pausch & Jeffrey Zaslow, Hodder & Stoughton, UK , 2008, ISBN: 978-0-340-97773-6,pp. 206,price not mentioned by Salman Asif Siddiqui* What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy? On 18 September 2007, Randy Pausch, a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University, delivered a lecture titled 'Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams'. The lecture was a part of University’s old tradition according to which professors at the end of their tenure are asked to consider their demise and ruminate on what matters most to them. These talks which are full of wisdom and invaluable lessons are generally regarded as The Last Lectures. But in the case of Randy, it was not the end of his tenure. He was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer in 2006 when he was 45. He was married, with three little children aged five, two and one at that time. Unlike other professors, the time of his Last Lecture came very early in his life. Randy’s last lecture at Carnegie Mellon was attended by an audience of over 400 colleagues and students. Right after its delivery, the lecture was uploaded on YouTube and University website. It became extremely popular in no time and viewed by millions of people across the globe. Later on, in April 2008, Randy authored a book The Last Lecture with the help of his friend Jeffrey Zaslow who was a journalist. The book is not the transcription of the lecture that Randy delivered in Carnegie Mellon, but the story behind the lecture with some details of his life that were not given in his lecture. In Randy's words, the book is a way to continue what was begun on stage. The idea of writing this book was as exciting as the idea of preparing the lecture. Readers will find both the stories in the book. With little time left in your life, it is not easy to commit writing a book. Randy did not want to consume the little time that he had for his three children and his wife by writing a book. But he was keen to compliment his widely celebrated lecture and preserve the lessons of his life in the form of a book. He therefore invented a way to do it. Based on one of his life principles which resonate throughout the book, “the brick walls are not there to stop us; they are there to let us show how badly we want something”. Time limitation did not stop Randy write this beautiful book. He wrote it when he was served an advance notice of his death. He had three to four months left when he chose to record his legacy. Randy asked his friend Jeffrey Zaslow for collaboration, to which he willingly agreed. Randy utilized the time of his bike riding, which was a crucial exercise for his health in giving talks to Jeffrey on his cell-phone headset. On fifty-three long bike rides, fifty-three talks were delivered to Jeffrey who then spent countless hours to turn them into this masterpiece book. Apart from a brief introduction in the beginning and an acknowledgement page in the end, the content of the book is organized in six parts. The first part of the book is titled 'The Last Lecture', which takes into account perhaps the most touching and emotional background of Randy’s lecture that nobody in the audience could ever imagine without reading this part of the book. It discusses how he convinced his wife Jai about going for this last lecture, she not being very happy over this idea, as only a few months were left for them to spend together and plan for life after Randy. The second part of the book titled 'Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams' was the title of Randy’s lecture. It was a strategic decision to choose a title through which he was going to communicate to a range of known and unknown people, his students, colleagues, his kids, his loving wife, relatives, friends, parents, counsellors, educators and patients of incurable diseases around the world. This part of the book outlines how Randy engineered a presentation that has a lasting inspiration and impact in the lives of millions of people. Randy lived a life that was driven by his childhood dreams. He has clearly illustrated how dreams add meaning to life. He lived a very successful life by accomplishing all of his childhood dreams from being in zero gravity to playing in National Football League, authoring an article in World Book Encyclopaedia, and to being a Disney Imagineer. The book contains stories of how passionately he pursued his dreams and how some extra ordinary people including his parents played their role in his life. The other parts of the book are filled with meaningful anecdotes of varying experiences like cancer treatment, birth of children, difficult situations at job and other turning points in life. There is a chapter in the book that outlines the tips of time management, which are based on Randy’s personal life. In the last section titled 'Final Remarks', Randy has described unique qualities of his three kids. This description is extremely profound yet simple enough to state that even educational psychologists would marvel at his insight. His vision for his children can surely inspire other parents, too. Randy says, “It can be a very disruptive thing for parents to have specific dreams for their kids. … A parent’s job is to encourage kids to develop a joy for life and a great urge to follow their own dreams. … So my dreams for my kids are very exact: I want them to find their own path to fulfilment. And given that I won’t be there, I want to make this clear: Kids, don’t try to figure out what I wanted you to become. I want you to become what you want to become.” Randy’s writing indicates that he was an optimistic person. At one point he analyzed, “Cancer has given me the time to have these vital conversations with Jai that wouldn’t be possible if my fate were a heart attack or car accident.” Besides, he has also expressed his deepest gratitude and regard for his wife. In the end he points out the two head fakes of his talk. First, the talk was not about how to achieve your dreams but how to lead your life. Second, the talk was not just for those in the hall, it was for his three kids. The book which is a kind of life story is a unique non-fiction filled with anecdotes and narratives. Organization of content is like a story board, which sustains readers’ curiosity and attention up till the end. Language is simple but often symbolic containing great wisdom in short phrases. Nobody can remain unmoved by the unique style, wit and intelligent humour that run throughout the book making the reading light, enjoyable and impactful. Randy calls himself a visual thinker and the book, too, offers a visual experience through a number of photographs. Soon after its launch, the book became a New York Times best-seller and spent more than 85 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. The book’s first printing alone had 400,000 copies. It has been translated into 46 languages. There are now more than 5 million copies of the book in print. Though Randy has lost his life to cancer in July 2008, but he will continue to inspire us all through his breathtaking book and lecture. This book is worth reading for anyone who cares about the meaning of life and its legacy. About the Reviewer: *Director, Education Resource Development Centre, Karachi, Email:director@erdconline.org How to Write a Thesis (second edition) Rowena Murray. New Delhi: TATA McGraw- Hill, 2010, ISBN:978-0-07-106795-9, pp.301, price not mentioned by Sajida Zaki* Higher education reforms over the last decade have resulted in greater emphasis on research. As a result both public and private institutes are offering MS and PhD programmes which have increased the numbers of students pursuing research work, and are required to write a thesis. Since, the research programmes are at a nascent stage, there is a dearth of teachers who can help this huge student population in writing a good thesis. Thus, students are generally seen struggling at the thesis completion stage of their research studies. They neither have awareness or experience regarding this genre of writing, nor adequate and timely availability of expert advice or support at their institutes to help them through. In this scenario, How to Write a Thesis by Rowena Murray is an invaluable resource both to the supervisors and students who are dealing with thesis writing. The book attempts to reduce this feeling of helplessness and perplexity which one experiences while writing a thesis. The writer has personally experienced this feeling as a student, and has also acknowledged in this book. One major reason that makes writing a thesis such a daunting and exigent task -something commonly felt in Pakistan, but not uncommon to rest of the world - is well recognized by the author and served as a motivation for writing this book as elaborated in the words: ‘Yet writing is still neglected; there is often no writing instruction, creating problems for those students who have never done much writing or, if they have, have not done so on the scale of the PhD’. This book, thus, provides a down to earth approach to recognize and relieve the pain staking task of writing a PhD thesis. It captures the writing process more holistically, and adopts a process oriented approach while unfolding the technicalities and elaborating the steps to be undertaken. This feature of covering the entire writing process in such a precise manner sets this book apart from all others on this subject. The book is structured in ten chapters which are planned in somewhat chronological fashion from the start of the task of writing a thesis till the post viva –stage writing. Chapters 1-4 provide the theoretical underpinning for the writing genre proposed in this book, help the readers in thinking and positioning their way into the thesis writer’s role, and introduce strategies for getting started in a more structured and organized way. Chapters 5-7 deal with working towards closure through strategies for regular and incremental writing and the tactics for surviving through the constant revising syndrome. Chapters 8-10 cover the final stages of the thesis writing process and provide insights on handling time in a way to push the thesis towards completion and to ensure that the completed product is a polished one. In this second edition of the book, the writer has stretched the contents of the first edition to include the examination and post examination stages of the PhD thesis: with ideas on ways of talking about your writing during the viva; and suggestions on managing the final revisions, and publishing from your thesis. The writer has adopted a reader –oriented language and writing style which is easy-to-follow and has elements that stimulate interest and understanding. The contents range from detailed guidelines on each stage of the writing process, to the practical examples and activities that convert the theoretical concepts into applications, and beyond to the clarification of the myths and uncertainties related with thesis writing. The book breaks away from the traditional routine of merely introducing and explaining the chapter sequencing and elaboration of the contents; rather, it discusses the strategies and design, uses signals and sign posts, and raises questions and issues for thinking and clarification. It covers almost all the aspects of research writing along with summaries of important points in each chapter and comprehensive checklists to enhance and retain the concepts. For writers, it is indeed a comprehensive practical guide which takes them through thinking and conceptualizing to structuring, drafting, revising, and shaping up the final finished document. Murray opens the book by sharing with the readers, the two premises of this work: first, to find out exactly what is expected of them as thesis writers; and second, write from the start and keep writing throughout their research. These two constitute as the most valuable pieces of advice for those involved in research; and the writer ensures that the book enables the readers to develop these traits in them. The writer’s statement on page 3, ‘Writing a thesis should not be one long catalogue of problems; once you have a repertoire of writing strategies , you can get on with writing,’ serves as a cautionary note and an indicator to the way-forward. The author also emphasizes that learning about the topic is interconnected with learning about writing; hence ignoring the later part may weaken the process, causing quality-compromise and time-delay. Moreover, the book reasserts three simple principles: writing fosters learning, quality comes through revision; and regular writing develops fluency. Readers, who have already completed their thesis writing process or are currently supervising their students, while reading this book are likely to recall questions that went unanswered or became distressing confusions. For example what is the difference between a thesis and a dissertation? What should be the length of thesis for undergraduate and master’s research project and for doctoral thesis? When should one start writing about research after completion of the project, or some other point in time? What should be the structure of the thesis like? What is my supervisor’s role in connection with my thesis writing process? How can I remain motivated towards my thesis writing activity? What are the problems related with thesis writing that I need to guard against? How will my thesis be assessed? Thanks to the author many individuals have the provision of undertaking the thesis writing journey with a clearer focus and greater confidence and can answer these and many more questions that may frustrate anyone who is en-route to complete his or her thesis. How to Write a Thesis is undoubtedly a complete guide available to researchers who are interested in submitting a good and timely thesis and who would like to have a thesis writing process which is free of fears and anxieties. It makes a basic and essential book on this topic and is well recommended to all students in the process of writing a thesis, all academic and technical staff whose job is to see these researchers through, and most importantly all those supervisors who are pressed for time to provide individual guidance to each of their supervisees. The book saves supervisors in cases where their students have never undertaken technical and academic writing of this type. The book is not limited only to students who are writing a master or doctoral thesis, but it can even act as a useful reference to students and teachers who are dealing with undergraduate research project. About the Reviewer: *Professor, Department of Humanities, NED University of Engineering & Technology, Karachi, Pakistan, Email:drzaki@neduet.edu.pk