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Nathan

An Imperfect Thesis

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“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.

Nathan

Viva Surprises

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I can’t imagine that many people reading this would want to encounter surprises at their viva.

  • A question that you’ve never considered.
  • A piece of feedback that makes you freeze.
  • A suggestion that you really don’t want.
  • A realisation that you’ve been discussing your work for two hours and not noticed the time pass.
  • A change to the viva process that’s different from what you expected.

Maybe that’s the key. There are so many fairly well-known expectations for the viva – not to mention regulations – that when something different does happen it can feel like it must be “wrong”. A viva surprise doesn’t have to mean a problem for you though; it’s not automatically beyond your ability or outside of your comfort zone. A surprise is just an event that you weren’t expecting, but is here all the same.

For any viva a candidate has to be ready to meet the expectations they learn about – and be ready to respond when something outside of those patterns happens.

(Because what else can you do?)

Nathan

Slowly

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There doesn’t need to be rush in viva prep.

Before you get to submission, sketch out a plan. Think about your life, commitments and responsibilities. Plan your prep so the work gets done. Bit by bit. Day by day. Slow prep is much better than racing to pack it all in at the last moment.

No-one has to sprint through their viva.

Listen to each question. Take your time to consider what you will add to the discussion. Ask questions. Check your thesis. There’s no race to get it over and done with. Some vivas are short but no viva has been made better by trying to get through it quickly.

Take your time with prep, take your time with your viva. Slow and steady will take you to success.

Nathan

The List

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Every candidate has at least one list for their viva.

It could be a list of typos they’ve found or ten papers they think have made the most contribution to their research. Maybe it’s a to-do list for viva prep or a must-have list for their viva day. A list of questions to ask their supervisor or a list of questions they think their examiners might have for them.

There’s at least one list you’ll think to write for your viva. And while you don’t need to do anything to prepare until after submission, you also don’t need to wait to capture things on a list for later.

Nathan

The Viva Needs More Understanding

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Candidates need to know more about examiners: how they prepare, what’s involved, what they’re asking, what they might ask and do and why.

Examiners need to know more about candidates and the PhD journey in the 2020s: they need to understand the particular thesis they’re looking at, the general experience of PGRs, the impact of COVID and more.

Supervisors need to understand the viva situation: they need to have a good handle on expectations, what helps in preparation, they have to grasp their candidates’ situations and advise them well.

And then there are researcher-developers, policy-makers, regulation-writers, awesome administrators and sensational support staff.

The viva needs more understanding. Or perhaps it is better to say that if everyone involved knew more about it then the viva, how it happens, how it’s prepared for and how it’s talked about could be better for everyone involved.

 

What can you do to improve your understanding about the viva before you have yours? Who could you ask? What do you need to know? And when you’ve been through the process, who could you share your experience with to help others with their understanding?

Nathan

Drivers, Worries, Actions

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In the viva, examiners drive the discussion by asking questions that:

  1. Explore your contribution;
  2. Investigate your authorship;
  3. Assess your capability as a researcher.

In turn, a candidate typically worries that:

  1. They haven’t done enough;
  2. They won’t remember enough about the process;
  3. They aren’t good enough to get a PhD.

To combat these a candidate could:

  1. Review their thesis and work to build confidence in the contribution;
  2. Rehearse explaining how they did the PhD to build confidence in describing the work;
  3. Reflect and remember how they have developed to build confidence in themselves.

Preparation helps with the discussion and lessening worries!

Nathan

Up To Date

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A small task for viva prep: book an hour or two in your diary to check recent publications.

Check journals you have read in the past, ask your supervisors and visit pre-print servers if appropriate to see if there is anything interesting you have missed in the months leading up to submission. It would be natural to be unaware of something if your focus is mostly on getting your thesis written up. Now you can take a short period to check if there’s anything relevant to your interests.

Your goal is not to find more material for your thesis. Your thesis, with the exception of amendments, is done. The purpose is to show your examiners – and yourself – that you are a good, capable researcher.

An hour or two after submission, sometime in the weeks leading up to the viva, can be enough to get up to date.

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

Going Back

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What would you change about your viva prep if you could go back and do it over?

I was asked this at a recent webinar. I knew immediately what I would change: I would have a mock viva. I definitely spent way more time on getting ready for my viva than any typical postgraduate researcher would need, but the one thing I didn’t do was rehearse.

For five or six weeks I read my thesis, made notes on pages and read my examiners’ work. I checked several papers I’d forgotten and had a weekly meeting with my supervisor where we talked about a thesis chapter. My examiners asked me to prepare slides to give a presentation for the start of my viva.

And while all of this helped, none of it prepared me directly for the simple thing I would spend my time doing in the viva: responding to questions and being part of a discussion.

So what would I do differently? Rehearse. I recommend every candidate do this too!

Nathan

Untangling

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My PhD research was about something called knot theory. The basic question in this topic can be explained, essentially, as “if you loop up a piece of elasticated string and glue the ends together, can you tell if it’s fundamentally the same or different from one that I make?”

It’s not hard to visualise, I think, but wow is it hard to actually get answers!

You need 1-variable polynomials of unoriented knots and 2-variable polynomials of oriented links. You need about 150 years of theory and new people all the time researching niche cases. You need invariants, polynomials, equations and Reidemeister moves. You could use arc invariants, stacked k-tangles and skein relations. You need to know your homology from your homotopy and you need to know what, when and why you use all these things.

Sorry. You don’t need to know all this. I did!

 

It was a lot to keep straight at times. And not all of it was directly relevant to my research, my thesis or my viva. As I was writing my thesis and then preparing for my viva, it helped me to untangle all of these terms and be sure of what they meant, what I needed them for and – in some cases – what I didn’t need.

You don’t need to know all of my stuff. You need to know your stuff for your viva. So take some time to think through what you need to be clear about. What do you need to check? What basics do you need to go over one more time? And what can you file away as probably important?

You need to know your stuff. So make sure you do.

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