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Tag: defending your work

Nathan

A Few Random Posts

Daily Post

Every page on the Viva Survivors site has a little link in the sidebar that says

Click here for a random post of viva help!

If you use it then you’ll find yourself reading one of (currently) 2467 daily viva help posts.

If you have a specific topic or problem you’re looking to read about then the search bar or selecting a tag beneath a post will be a better way to find help. But if you just want to read a helpful thought related to the viva, the random post link is probably the way to go. Here are five posts that the link just gave me:

  • Not-To-Do – what would it be helpful to avoid in viva prep?
  • Scrawl – thinking about thesis annotation.
  • What If I Fail? – the big question in the minds of many worried candidates.
  • Breathe – an encouragement to relax a little.
  • Defending Your Work – what it means to really defend without being defensive.

A few random posts can offer a lot of help – and I’ve worked to make sure that there’s a lot more than a few random posts on Viva Survivors.

If you’re looking for help, you’ll find some here 🙂

Nathan

Defending Your Work

Daily Post

In the viva it means supporting your thesis.

It means restating what you did, or replying to a question about a related aspect. It could be listening to another point of view and reconciling it with your work. It could be clearing up a mistaken belief that your examiner holds. It could be making your work clearer because it wasn’t clear in your thesis. It could be all of these things and other things besides.

Defending your work does not mean being defensive. Defensive is not listening. Defensive is thinking that you are right, no matter what. Defensive won’t help.

You could be angry or upset with a comment or question, you can feel what you feel – but you’ll serve your thesis and your viva better by defending your work, rather than by being defensive.

Listen to the question or comment. Check it against what you think and feel. Think about your response. Check it for emotion – you don’t need to be a robot, but be careful you’re not just reacting to a negative feeling.

Defend, not defensive.