Daily viva help for PhDs
Maybe we need to rebrand minor corrections. How about:
Whatever we call them, they are small changes compared to the large amount of work you have already invested. Minor corrections are a small amount of work to leave your thesis in as good a state as possible before you move on to your next challenge.
Small changes. Thank your examiners, do the work and finish your thesis well.
It’s not the end of your journey or the end of the work.
As your viva concludes take a moment to reflect and think if there’s anything else you want to ask your examiners. Are there any questions you can imagine asking now?
Before the very end of the viva there is often a break where examiners confer. You could sit or pace nervously – or decide in advance that you’ll get some fresh air, refill your water bottle or quickly journal anything that’s occurred to you. What will you do in that break?
As you find out the result of the viva it’s very likely that you’ll be asked to complete minor corrections. While you might not know these now you can learn how long that corrections period. You can plan ahead for how you might do that work.
The end of the viva is not the end of your journey or the end of the work – but you’ll be really close to being done.
PS: want to explore what else you need to do to be done? Check out Viva Survivor, my upcoming live webinar on Wednesday 25th June. I’ve shared this session more than 400 times with PhD candidates all around the UK, but this is only the third time I’ve opened up registration. A 3-hour live webinar, catch-up recording and follow-up materials all about the viva, viva prep and getting ready. Take a look at the details and see if it might help you or someone you know. Thanks for reading!
You can do a lot to write a good thesis. It’s still likely that you will miss some unintentional typos. You might not spot when a sentence gets really long without a break. And after submission you might change your mind about a particular phrasing or explanation.
Any corrections that your examiners request are simply that. Corrections. Amendments. Fixes. Requests for changes to make your thesis that little bit better.
They don’t think you didn’t care. They don’t believe you should have done more or better.
Writing is hard. Writing a book is very hard.
If during your preparations you spot something that needs correcting that’s fine. If your examiners tell you about some in the viva that’s fine. After the viva, get them done and move on.
Don’t be too concerned about corrections.
Thesis corrections are part of the PhD journey for most candidates.
The way they’re talked about often makes corrections sound like one of the worst possible aspects of the viva process – as if they were so undesirable as to make all other parts of the experience better by comparison. Maybe it’s as simple as the fact that they’re a continuation of the viva: corrections are something you have to do even though it’s all supposed to be over.
Most candidates get corrections – so all candidates need to be prepared to do them.
Most candidates get minor corrections – so all candidates need to keep that in mind when thinking about the viva and the weeks that will come immediately after it.
In most cases corrections are a very small part of the journey.
PS: another common part of the journey is success at the viva. To find out why that happens and what you can do to get ready, take a look at Viva Survivor, my live webinar running this Thursday 5th December 2024. The registration deadline is Wednesday 4th at 5pm so register soon if you want to attend!
It would be really nice to have no corrections to complete after your viva!
I bet that would feel great.
Hope for it, but that’s all it is: a hope that your writing, proofreading and efforts didn’t miss any mistakes that need fixing. A hope that your thinking has been clear and consistent across tens of thousands of words.
Corrections are a part of the process for most PhD candidates. It’s not because most candidates are sloppy: it’s a reflection that writing is hard, editing is hard and proofreading is hard.
It would be really, really nice to have no corrections to complete after your viva!
You’ll probably have more than zero to resolve. Accept that situation when you submit, do the work that’s asked and then move on.
“Submitted is perfect” was a piece of thesis writing advice that jumped out to me on Twitter a few weeks ago. I wish I could remember where I saw it, though I imagine the person sharing it was not unique in expressing the idea. There are several ways that the advice could be interpreted, some very helpful and some much less so.
It was intended to mean that getting a thesis in is a big enough goal: a “perfect” thesis is one that is handed in on-time rather than one which is “perfectly written”.
A less helpful reading could be that a thesis is perfect when it is submitted – and that if someone receives corrections there must be a terrible problem or situation.
It’s important to know what corrections are. A typo. A passage that requires editing. An update. A change of structure to a paragraph or a reframing of ideas. Corrections are requested when there is something needed to make the thesis better – but only because the examiners recognise the value of the contributions within the thesis.
Corrections are one more step in the PhD process, not a sign of an imperfect thesis, nor a sign of a problem with your work.
Viva Survivors Summer Sabbatical: I’m taking July, August and September off from new writing to concentrate on other creative projects, so will be sharing a post from the archives every day throughout those months. Today’s post was originally published on March 14th 2023.
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.
Most PhD candidates are asked to complete corrections as a result of their viva.
They’re not a mark against the candidate. Corrections result from the fact that writing is hard and writing a book is very hard.
Most candidates get corrections. It’s likely you will as well. After the viva you have a chance to make final changes before your book is finished forever.
Thank your examiners for their time and observations. Do the work. Then move on.
That’s how long your thesis will be finished.
Once it’s done, it’s done.
Maybe it will be a physical book on a shelf in the library or a file downloaded by researchers. It could be appreciated for many years to come.
Perhaps it will only be looked at by a few – and perhaps, like me, you wonder who else your thesis is for…
Whatever the case, if it’s going to be finished forever, make it as good as you can.
Do your best when writing it and then listen to the suggestions and requests of your examiners. Corrections are the most likely outcome for the viva because writing is hard. After the viva you have one final chance to make any sensible, realistic changes to your thesis.
Because then it will be done. Forever.
Updates need to be installed.
How do you feel when your computer gives you that notification?
Updates need to be installed. It’s not a suggestion. It’s not something you can do if it sounds good. It needs to happen. Maybe not immediately, but in the near future.
And yet despite the need, your computer will probably still work fine without them; it will still turn on, fire up, navigate to Viva Survivors for the latest post – but your computer will be better with the updates installed.
Thesis corrections are like a software update.
Your thesis needs corrections probably. You’ll be notified of what they are. You won’t have to drop everything but you will need to do them. Maybe not immediately, but within a matter of weeks. You’ll be told what they’re for. You’ll be told why they need to be done. And your thesis might be fine without them in some cases, but it will be better when they’re done.
Software updates can be inconvenient, so you might want to do them at the end of a day or at the weekend. They appear without warning sometimes – which is where the comparison to thesis corrections breaks down!
It’s very likely you’ll need to complete corrections after your viva. So likely that it’s worth checking the regulations in advance to learn the timescale involved. So likely that it’s worth looking in your diary and marking out a few times, in the first instance, when you could do some of the work involved.
Computer updates appear without warning. Thesis corrections can be expected.