A New Approach

Congratulations if you have found a new approach or a new way of doing things as part of your research! That by itself meets the definition of an original contribution to research (and it’ll probably have some significance too!).

It’s great but it might invite questions:

• Why is this approach more appropriate than others?
• If there were no others how do you know that this one is good?
• How do you defend the approach if it differs from previous expectations?

Anyone might ask these questions but they are also representative of the kinds of questions that could occur to examiners too (although theirs might be more specialised).

None of these kinds of questions are problems though. They’re opportunities to share something good. You’ve done something new. You’ve done something helpful.

It’s natural to worry or wonder but equally you can take time to prepare and even practise how you communicate your approach.