Daily viva help for PhDs
The chapters in your thesis might have titles, but what are the headlines?
How could you summarise what they’re all about in a few short sentences? What details or terms do you need to emphasise? What points must you get across?
A short headline or two for each chapter could be a neat and simple way to add a few useful annotations to your thesis. What would you add?
Small sticky notes are about 4cm by 5cm. There’s not a lot to them; they’re a tiny stationery delight.
You could use them as bookmarks or to add short supplementary material to your thesis, but why not add some little messages during your viva prep?
What else might help ?
Practical, directly-related to your research prep is great, but perhaps you also just need a nudge to remember that you’re awesome.
Highlighter pens can be a useful part of a viva prep toolkit.
You can use one colour to show key references and another to make essential information stand out. You could add a colourful edge to specific pages or mark the start of chapters. It may not be common, but if it meets your needs you could even keep track of typos and future edits with a careful colour selection.
Highlighters are a simple way to show something important but also a clever reminder that you have work in your thesis that matters. You draw attention to what needs to be seen or shared.
As well as edits, references and information, consider using highlighters for the highlights: what do you need to be able to see at a glance to share with your examiners?
Thesis pages have words, gaps, lines, margins and space at the top and bottom.
Annotation is a key step in viva preparation: adding something to make what’s there even better for the purposes of the viva. You gain a little help when you do the work because you have to think about what you need to add and why – and you get even more by making a special edition version of your thesis to use in the viva.
Every page in your thesis gives you an opportunity to help yourself but you don’t need to add something to every page or overload every page with more words, underlining and highlighting. The opportunity could be used by thinking, “Actually, this is fine as it is.”
Turn the page. Look carefully. Add what you need.
When you start to annotate your thesis, take ten minutes to think and make some decisions.
First, think carefully about what you need in your thesis. Every thesis is different and so is every person. There may be some very good suggestions for annotations that would be helpful to a lot of people, but they may not be right for meeting your needs or preferences. So make a list: what do you need in your thesis?
Second, consider how you are going to meet your needs simply and consistently. This is very important: anything you add takes time to add and anything you add will be seen again by you. It’s better if whatever approach you take is easy to do and easy to remember.
So what will you underline? With what colour? For what reason?
Where will you add margin notes? What governs your decisions for using highlighters? And when will you stick notes in to your thesis?
Decide before you begin. Think about your thesis. Think about your needs.
Be as simple as you can and work consistently to help the process of annotating your thesis – and to create a good space for when you’ll need to read it again.
Perhaps when you annotate your thesis to get ready for the viva you won’t strictly write “between the lines” – but you will need to consider what things mean and draw something out.
Maybe you’ll spot a keyword or two that could be highlighted. Or a sentence that stands out or needs a note in the margin for clarification.
As you prepare you’ll probably want to write a summary or two as well. You’ll consider a section and “read between the lines,” capturing the big ideas or points in a few sentences.
There are a lot of words in your thesis. You don’t need to remember them all to succeed at your viva, but carefully reflecting on what’s there, looking between the lines, is a valuable investment of time as you get ready.
Ahead of my viva I wrote in my thesis margins to simplify jargon. I checked my maths to convince myself I was right. I found an unclear explanation and rewrote it so it made more sense to me. I wrote notes on my external’s research interests to understand why my work was incompatible.
I made a lot of notes before my viva – and I read none of them in my viva, even the margin notes.
I was asked by my examiners to prepare a presentation to start the exam and I don’t think I read those notes either!
The notes were to help me get ready and they did.
All of my notes helped me to feel that I was doing or had done everything I could to be ready.
Cheer up your viva prep with a selection of sticky notes for your thesis.
Mark out the beginning of chapters and important sections. Add sentences of clarification to pages. Stick in summaries and helpful bullet point lists. Find the best pages and make them stand out with a bit of colour.
There’s a lot of serious viva prep that needs to be done; I’ve mentioned several parts in this post already! Just because something is serious doesn’t mean it can’t also be done with a little smile.
Annotate your thesis as part of your viva prep to make a better version of your thesis; use sticky notes to make that better version a little happier too.
Your thesis is proof that you did the work. It’s the best summary you are able to make of years of research you’ve done.
Your thesis is a talisman to hold on to. It’s one more thing you can look to for confidence in your capability and knowledge.
Your thesis is a resource to use in the viva. Read it in preparation and annotate it to make it more helpful..
Your thesis is one book, but can mean lots of things.
What’s the most helpful story you can tell yourself about your thesis?
There are so many pages in your thesis.
The pages contain the best of your research, told as well as you can; they hold facts and/or figures, opinions and conclusions, details and digressions and everything that you think is needed to tell the story of your PhD research.
The pages in your thesis have big clear borders and section headings, chapter titles and funny words, maybe footnotes and appendices and a bibliography pointing to even more reading!
And the pages in your thesis contain typos and hidden points, possibilities for changes and unclear expressions, lots that you remember and a fair amount you probably don’t.
There are pages and pages and pages of stuff in your thesis. The smallest thesis still contains a lot!
Get ready for your viva by reading, annotating, summarising and feeling proud of the wonderful book you wrote.