The most common typo I had to correct after my viva were the places I had not noticed “the the”.
This was also the most annoying correction I had to make! I didn’t spot the ten or twelve instances I had missed while I was proofreading my thesis. I also didn’t spot the places where I had typed “a the” as well, which was more than once but thankfully fewer than “the the”.
“the the” was enough.
Some typos are hard to spot. They’re annoying because they get in the way.
Thankfully they don’t get in the way too much. And thankfully they can be altered before a thesis goes into the archives forever.
Whatever your corrections, whether it’s many cases of the “the the”s or 101 typos and small edits, look on them as a helpful opportunity to make your thesis a little bit better, forever.
