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Tag: doing more

Nathan

Doing More

Daily Post

At the viva you’re doing more to tell your examiners about what you’ve done, how you did it and who you are. You’ve set that out in your thesis but now they need more from you.

They need you to do more to clarify what you did.

They need you to do more to explain what it means.

They might need you to do more to convince them of an opinion you hold.

They can ask you to do more to tell the story of why your research makes a contribution.

Whatever they need you to do, however, it’s more of what you’ve already done. Doing more is showing your knowledge, your ability, your thinking and all-round capability as a researcher.

It’s only a little more though. That’s all you need and all your examiners need for this final challenge.

Nathan

The Extra Mile

Daily Post

During my PhD I didn’t have to extend my algorithm to consider the HOMFLY polynomial…

…but I thought it was more useful than just writing it was possible in a discussion section.

I didn’t have to produce tables of plait presentations in my thesis…

…but I knew that no-one else had done it before and thought it might be helpful to someone.

When have you gone the extra mile in your PhD? When have you done something, big or small, that maybe wasn’t essential but which helped?

Make a list of what and why. Don’t play them down. They can show others your drive to do something valuable for your field.