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Tag: prep task

Nathan

Inspecting Chapters

Daily Post

Pick a chapter in the middle of your thesis. Have a quick read and then consider the following questions for a few minutes each:

  1. What does this chapter add to your thesis?
  2. What did you learn from doing the work?
  3. How did you feel writing this chapter?
  4. How did you feel reading it now?
  5. How many typos or other mistakes have you found?
  6. How many times did you think “I wish I could change that!”?
  7. What else from your research did you think about when reading it?
  8. What do you think your examiners might make of it?

Some of those questions might seem odd or unfair – but probably not as unfair as some of the questions you might ask when you doubt your progress or capability!

 

Doubts and worries are a part of being human but you can decide what you’d like to give your attention to. Not every question is worth your time. You can decide where to put your focus.

Find ways to ignore questions which only hinder your prep and confidence. One approach would be to focus on more helpful questions. In my opinion, questions 1, 2, 7 and 8 are probably the most helpful questions in the example above!

Nathan

Five Contributions

Daily Post

List five contributions to research that you and your work have made, big or small. For each one, write one or two short sentences to respond to each of these questions:

  • When did you do the work that lead to this contribution?
  • Why was this work something you pursued?
  • How did you approach this?
  • Who, if anyone, supported you in this and what did they do?
  • Where does it fit in your thesis?
  • What does this contribution mean to other people?

Five contributions and several sentences for each then gives a fruitful space for further reflection.

How would you organise them? Chronologically? Can you group them into related categories? Do they have similar impact or area of impact? Did one contribution allow for another?

And, more than anything, can you see that with very little provocation there is a lot you can talk about at your viva when it comes to thinking about the contributions you have made?