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Nathan

Do I Need A Printed Thesis?

Daily Post

Over the last year a lot of PhD candidates have asked me variations on this question. Any response has to be layered, because there’s lots to think about. Often, the question is being asked because it has been more difficult than usual to obtain a printed copy.

Do you still need a printed thesis in the age of Zoom vivas?

  • The first thing to do is check what your institution and department say. Have regulations or expectations changed? If yes, you could consider having a digital copy, but if not you just might need to get a printed copy produced regardless.
  • If you need a printed copy but your institution print shop is out of action or has greatly reduced capacity, then Google is your friend: there are lots of online printing services that can produce this and ship to your door quickly.
  • If you don’t, according to the rules, need a printed copy, then you have to consider about what you need for the viva.

You need a copy of your thesis, in a format that is easy for you to read, search through and find sections. You need a copy of your thesis that you can annotate, both before and potentially during your viva. Annotation makes your thesis more useful for the viva and helps you to reflect on your thesis as you get ready. A digital copy of your thesis could do this, but you have to be sure that the format, the software and the device you are using is going to be enough for you in the viva.

My personal opinion is that a print copy of a thesis could, in many cases, be the best solution. But that’s my personal opinion, based on my needs, how easy I would find it to use a paper document and so on. I don’t have any needs that wouldn’t be met by a paper thesis. I don’t have any restrictions in terms of getting access to a printed 200-page document if I needed one for that purpose. I’m me, I’m not you.

If you need a digital copy, then it’s worth exploring how you would make that work well for you in the viva.

If you need a paper copy but that might be tricky to find, then it’s worth searching for a way to get one.

Nathan

The Longest Short Break

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The break at the end of my viva really wasn’t that long.

My memory tells me it was about 17 minutes, but it was a very long 17 minutes. It felt longer than the four hours I was in the viva.

I sat at my desk. I looked at things. Maybe I checked my email. My memory is hazy about that, but I remember it being a long time that was really no time at all. Then my internal collected me and I walked back along the corridor to find out the result.

You might have seventeen minutes or seven, a brief pause or an anxious wait, but you are very likely to have a short break of some description at the end of the viva. A chance to think about what’s just happened, to fret or smile, but time to fill nonetheless.

It’s a good idea to think in advance of something to do, just in case you are a little anxious when you come out, or in case there’s no-one around to support you (whether your viva is from home or in your department).

It won’t be long, but it might not feel that way at the time. Plan accordingly.

Nathan

Starting With A Presentation

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Examiners sometimes ask a candidate to prepare a short presentation to open the viva. They’re always clear about whether or not this is something they want: regulations might mention them, your department might have them often, but your examiners will be specific about whether or not they want one, and if they do, help set some expectations for what you could do.

“Ten to fifteen minutes summarising your thesis.”

“A short overview of each of your chapters and their key points.”

If your examiners ask for a presentation then prepare one in a style that works for you. Break your work down as best you can. Practise doing it so that you know you’ve got your points covered in the time you have, then go and start your viva in a good way.

If your examiners don’t ask for a presentation, there could still be a lot of value in preparing for one.

Summarise your work, connect ideas clearly and concisely, then practise delivering it with an audience of friends who can ask you questions and offer thoughts. There may be a little more work involved with this than with a lot of general viva prep ideas, but it can be a really useful way to help convince yourself you’re ready for your viva.

Nathan

Tomorrow’s Story

Daily Post

Tomorrow is the best time to start building your confidence for the viva – assuming you didn’t do it yesterday and you’re busy today.

Tomorrow, take five minutes to write down a few thoughts about something that you’ve achieved in the course of your PhD. Capture a result, an idea, a paper, a chapter, a skill that you’ve developed, a knowledge-based competence – something you’ve done that has helped you get to where you are.

And keep going every day. Five minutes of reflection every day, building up a short story collection of the last few years. A collection of little story fragments that point to you being good at what you do. A story that, when combined, shows you can be confident you’re ready for your viva.

Nathan

My Story

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Where do I begin?

Do I start with my teenage dreams of being a teacher? How I left those behind when my father died? Or do I start with telling you about my undergraduate degree in maths and philosophy?

How much should I tell you of my Masters, or why I didn’t continue working with my first supervisor from there?

When I talk about my PhD, should I tell you about the big results from my thesis? And if I do, do I leave out the miserable months of my second year when I could seem to make no headway? Should I tell you that those miserable months returned in my third year too?

What are the lessons that stand out? What are the moments I should share? What are the details that you need from me?

How did I get here? It depends on the audience. It depends on my mood. It depends on the story.

And in some ways it doesn’t matter at all.

 

A PhD story – or a viva story – can be useful. Listening to someone else’s journey is valuable; trying to tease out nuggets of experience and insight can be really helpful in finding things to try for oneself.

Far more useful though is the story you tell yourself about yourself.

I told myself I was lucky during my PhD, and it made me feel that I hadn’t worked for what I had.

Afterwards, I realised one day that I was fortunate – and that change of word helped me realise the work I had done, the skillset I had built and the confidence I could base on it.

My story? It’s good. It’s true. It’s changed over the years and stayed true.

What’s your story? Get it right, and it’ll help you through the end of your PhD, through your viva and beyond.

Nathan

Level Up

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In some video games you defeat monsters or complete tasks and gain quantifiable experience that helps you to level up: over time you gain points to invest in making your character better. Stronger abilities, new equipment and perhaps completely new skillsets.

A webinar participant suggested to me that this was like the viva:

After much toil and many obstacles you have reached the hallowed halls of your destiny. You are the mighty wielder of the legendary Sword of Thesis! Only you can overcome the Terrifying Twin Dragons of Examination!!

For obvious reasons, I like the idea, but also I think the reality of the PhD presents something different to this fantasy viva micro-world. By the time you reach the viva, you – the brave hero – have levelled up so many times, and overcome so many great challenges, that the difficulties you face in the viva are not so terrible.

The Twin Dragons really aren’t so scary at all actually.

Questions can be managed. Fears can be resolved. You’re no longer a mere mortal.

There’s challenge for you in the viva, but your experience helps you overcome it.

Nathan

You Can’t Know Everything

Daily Post

There might be lots that you don’t know. If you tax yourself by thinking about all of the papers that you didn’t read, all the practical research you didn’t do (or couldn’t do) and all of the things you know that others know but you don’t then you could easily talk yourself into feeling bad about your thesis or your viva.

What you know, matters. You don’t know everything. You know enough. The things you know, the things you can do, have got you where you are. Not everything, but enough to get you to the viva and through the viva.

Not knowing something isn’t comfortable, but what you know can be enough to help you find confidence for your viva.

Nathan

Good Things

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A simple piece of viva prep and confidence building: make a list of as many good things about your research and thesis as you can think of. Add anything about your development too, what knowledge or skills you’ve built up over the course of your PhD years.

It’s fine to list items, but even more powerful if you go back and add details as to why these things are good. Why is that result or piece of research good? What did reading that paper allow you to do? How does a skill help you?

A PhD can be hard for many reasons. There’s a lot of good there too.

Find the good, and use that to help you feel ready for your viva.

Nathan

Great Power

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With great power comes great responsibility.

It’s fun to know that Stan Lee didn’t quite invent this phrase, but lovely to know that it’s popularisation is pretty much all due to Spider-Man. It applies to more than just superheroes and those in positions of power, it’s a beautiful truth that applies to many situations.

Like PhDs, of course! I have a couple of thoughts in mind for today.

First, through what you’ve built up over the course of your PhD, you owe it to yourself to prepare well for the viva. This doesn’t have to take a lot from you – remember, you’re powerful! – but you have that responsibility after all this work to see it through to a good conclusion. You have power in that.

Second, and more important by far, with all that power, you have a responsibility to do something that matters after your PhD. That could be a job in academia or somewhere else. It could be you start a business, or you volunteer your skills; it could be that you do something to help one person or many. Your family, your local community, your organisation or people all over the world. You can make a difference.

Knowledge is power, but you have more than just that. You have skill. You have talent. You have know-how as well as knowing lots. With the great power that you have, you have a responsibility to make a difference.

Spider-Man isn’t “better” than someone without powers. A person with a PhD isn’t “better” than someone without. But you might have skills that they don’t, skills that they could really need.

So help. Make a difference.

Be a hero.

Nathan

The Long Way

Daily Post

Between the first day of your PhD and your last you travel a huge distance. From potential to results, you’re talented when you start and even more talented when you submit – plus you have a lovely book too!

Across all that time it’s sometimes hard to see the moments when you succeeded, when you’ve had amazing times of personal growth or completed projects. The great stuff can be hard to pick out from all the days of hard work: reading, thinking, writing and developing what you did.

You can’t get to the end of your PhD, to submission and on track for the viva any other way. There’s no shortcuts, you have to come the long way.  To be sure of your confidence for the viva you have to review that journey when it nears the end. Look back over what you’ve done and consider how you got to where you are.

The PhD journey is long. It can be hard. It can be so hard to get to the end.

But you will – you will reach the end. As you get closer to the viva, reflect on how you got there and what that means.

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