Perfectly Impossible
I got a note from an anonymous seminar participant: I have written the perfect thesis. Should I worry about the viva? If the first statement was true, I could see no reason why they should. If their thesis was perfect,...
Daily viva help for PhDs
I got a note from an anonymous seminar participant: I have written the perfect thesis. Should I worry about the viva? If the first statement was true, I could see no reason why they should. If their thesis was perfect,...
If your examiner tells you they don’t like something in your thesis you have options: You could say sorry, and do whatever they say as a result. You could stare them down, insist that you’re right, and see what happens....
I’ve heard these three words used so many times to describe what a PhD needs to produce. I’ve said them myself thousands of times in workshops! But what do we mean when we say these words? What are we getting...
About six weeks ago I watched as a dozen children almost went to war in my living room. The reason? Pass The Parcel. It was my daughter’s fifth birthday party, and she’d insisted on playing a lot of games, including...
My thesis was full of codewords: technical terms and jargon that would have been tough for the uninitiated to break. Genus 2 manifold. Unoriented link. Plait presentation. How coded is your thesis? Jargon can save on words and be a...
What did you not put in your thesis? As my submission got closer there were several ideas I worked on which didn’t make it into my thesis. One little project was just too big in the end, and I couldn’t...
I like Pat Thomson‘s recent post about looping. In it she describes a useful writing method to quickly expand on a topic, then reflect to distil down, before expanding again. It seems like a nicely structured approach to get yourself...
The acknowledgements page of a thesis is a lovely opportunity to be thankful. Thank your supervisors for all they’ve done. Thank your family and friends by name. Thank your funders if you have them. Thank anyone who has really helped....
Imagine your thesis is an iceberg. You can see it floating in a sea of knowledge. Big and beautiful, possibly dangerous! A hazard for other ideas, crashing and crushing, but approached carefully you can study it. Someone can think about...
As an alternate route to unpicking the value of your thesis contribution, consider reflecting on the challenge that was involved in getting it done. I don’t only mean the labour of three or more years, but the deeper questions about...