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Nathan

Imperfect Reflections

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Looking in a mirror shows things reversed. Looking in a spoon shows things distorted. And reflecting on research doesn’t automatically reveal everything we want or need.

  • Gathering thoughts or summarising ideas doesn’t tell the whole story.
  • Focussing questions mean that some points have to be left out.
  • Memory can be faulty and our biases can cover up things that they shouldn’t.

With all of that in mind, perhaps the best thing you can do when when reflecting on your research for viva preparation is to reflect a lot.

Ask lots of questions. Create lots of small summaries. Find many different ways to look at what you’ve done, how you did it, why you did it and what happened.

A reflection is never perfect, but by exploring different perspectives you will find more than if you just looked back one time on one aspect.

Nathan

Elevate Your Pitch

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It’s unlikely that you will have to give an elevator pitch of your research at the viva. I’ve never heard of examiners asking for a polished thirty-second or two-minute overview of 3+ years of work.

But that said, exploring a concise summary could be a useful part of viva prep. You could:

  • Highlight the most important points of your research;
  • Organise your thinking about key ideas;
  • Rehearse using technical terms and jargon;
  • Practise talking about your work.

Your examiners don’t want a pre-prepared speech as a response in your viva, but rehearsing a pitch for your research could help how you think and talk on the day.

Nathan

Why Write A Summary?

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You’ve written your thesis, read it in preparation for your viva and maybe made notes on pages.

So why would you write anything else about it? Why would you write a summary as part of your viva prep?

  • To gather your thoughts. A thesis could have tens of thousands of words, but you don’t need all of them to defend your research in the viva. Writing a summary can help gather together your best ideas.
  • To focus your thinking. Sitting and writing with a simple question or prompt can help you to dig deeper into a topic. It’s far better than just making a note.
  • To reorder your ideas. To take highlights from different sections and combine them. To give you an opportunity to arrange your ideas for talking in the viva.

You could summarise a chapter or your whole thesis. You could write paragraphs or lists. You could zero in on particular aspects like the bibliography or methodology, or write a broad overview of all your work.

Why write a summary? To help you get ready for your viva.

Nathan

What’s Important?

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Two words to prompt reflection on nearly every aspect of the viva and viva prep.

What’s important…

  • …about your thesis? Explore it chapter by chapter with a notebook in hand. Make notes about anything that stands out to you.
  • …about your PhD journey? When you think back over how you did the work, what matters?
  • …about your viva expectations? What do you need to know more about and what are you comfortable with?
  • …about your examiners? Who are they, what do they do and what might they ask?
  • …about your viva preparations? What do you have to do and when will you get the work done?

What’s important? Two words that can start your thinking, exploring and working towards what you need. The examples I give above might help, but maybe for your situation you need to focus on something else.

So ask yourself: what’s important?

Nathan

Two Reflections

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Today: two series of questions that could help as one gets ready for the viva.

First a reflection on your research:

  • Why is your research contribution valuable?
  • How did you do your research?
  • What was the result?

Second, a reflection on you, the researcher:

  • When did you make the greatest progress on your research journey?
  • Where have you found the most help and support?
  • Who are you now that you are coming to the end of your PhD?

Long-time readers of the blog might recognise the “Six Honest Serving Men” of Rudyard Kipling: proto-questions that I think help find good questions for reflection.

Getting ready for the viva involves preparation related to your research and yourself. This could involve talking, making notes and so on – but a little quiet reflection can also be really useful. Invest some time in thinking about what you did and who you are now.

Nathan

A Helpful Acronym

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If you’re looking for some help reflecting on your research ahead of the viva, consider reading one of the chapters in your thesis and then respond to the following questions:

  • What is valuable in the chapter? What difference does it make? How does it add to your significant, original contribution?
  • What do you find interesting about the research? How did you connect with the topic? What could you do well?
  • Is there anything vague in what you’ve presented? With hindsight could something be clearer? How could you speak about it when talking with your examiners?
  • Are there any questions you think you’ll ask your examiners based on the work? Is there anything you think they’d like to know? Can you do anything to prepare for possible questions?

There’s a lot more that you could do to get ready for the viva than simply consider the valuable, the interesting, the vague and the questions someone might ask. To start reflection these four words can be very useful – and very easy to remember when you spot the acronym they make!

Nathan

Make A Note

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Make a note of any papers that have helped your research develop.

Make a note of the times that you remember great success during your PhD.

Make a note of what you know about the viva.

Make a note of anything you know about your examiners’ interests.

Make a note of methods, questions or ideas that you find tricky.

Make a note of topics you need to discuss with your supervisor.

Make a note of times when you remember presenting well.

Make a note of challenges you overcame throughout your PhD, particularly with the pandemic.

Then reflect. What stands out? What helps you? What do you need to do as a result?

Remember to make a note of anything that could help you, in some way, be more ready for your viva.

Nathan

Right Summaries

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I’ve shared a lot of thoughts on the importance of writing summaries as part of viva prep. They can be a useful way to explore an aspect of your work. They can help to focus attention and simplify complicated ideas. They can give you greater certainty that you know what you need to know.

I believe writing a summary is a valuable use of your time when getting ready for the viva, but:

  • Don’t write summaries to give yourself a script to read from.
  • Don’t write summaries to just do something while you’re getting ready for the viva.
  • Don’t write a certain kind of summary if you can’t see the point.

You’re not expected to simply read things out in the viva. Your prep should be purposeful and directed. Not every idea of a “good summary” is going to be relevant for every candidate and thesis.

The right summary for you to write is something that frees up your thinking, rather than finding the only words for sharing something. Write a summary that’s right for you.

Nathan

The What

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What did you do?

It’s unlikely your examiners will ask you as simple a question as this to explore your PhD research but the thought will be there.

What did you do?

When your examiners ask about your research, remember that they will have already carefully read your thesis. They know what you did: they’re looking for you to be clear, concise and to dig into what you think is important to summarise.

What did you do?

It’s necessary to ask how and why in order to explain what you did. Methods and motivations are as interesting to explore as outcomes.

What did you do?

It’s probably necessary to practise different ways of describing your research to see what works best for you. You don’t need a polished monologue for your viva, but the practise will help you to find the words when you need them.

What did you do?

Nathan

Valuable, Interesting, Vague, Ask

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Around 2013 I invented a series of prompts to help a candidate reflect on their thesis.

Through not-so-subtle phrasing I got these keywords to spell out VIVA. The tool is used to explore the contents of a thesis chapter. All of these reflections combined then create a useful summary of the thesis.

The four prompts (and associated questions) are:

  • Valuable (to others): what would someone else find valuable in this chapter?
  • Interesting (to you): what interests you about your work?
  • Vague (or unclear): what doesn’t seem clear when you read it?
  • Ask (your examiners): what questions would you like to ask in the viva given the opportunity?

I shared VIVA for years in seminars. Switching to webinars I couldn’t find the right way to share this tool in a session. I’ve felt sad about this for a year now. There are other tools, but this one really speaks to me. I’ve done some reflecting on why this is the case:

  • Valuable: as a set of prompts I think it intuitively allows a candidate to find the key ideas that are going to be useful to them, both in the prep and in the viva.
  • Interesting: for me, it was always fun to present and not mention the acronym at the start, only drawing attention to it at the end. Acronyms are fun!
  • Vague: or “unclear” – I had to add this word because vague was a little too vague at times, not as known a word as I thought.
  • Ask: I like that the tool invites and prompts questions. It is a little open-ended and allows a candidate to dig deeper and engage with the thesis and research – just like a candidate would have to do in the viva.

I would encourage every candidate to spend a little time in advance of their viva using VIVA to reflect on and analyse their thesis.

Every chapter of your thesis has something valuable in it. Everything you’ve done springs from something you found interesting. Find what’s vague so you can make it clearer in your thoughts for the viva. Consider what you might ask your examiners – and thus how you’ll play your part in the viva.

And find more thoughts on VIVA at this link!

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