Hi all, first time poster here. I had my viva last week and passed with minors, just about. To make a long story short, my supervisor and I made a big mistake in the choice of the external, who wanted majors, and it was only thanks to the fantastic intervention of the internal that this was averted. Now I'm sitting around waiting for my report and am just getting angrier by the minute.

The external did not engage with my theoretical argument once (despite the fact that I cite them extensively) and instead chose to niggle about the form and structure of the thesis. I've basically written the thesis in the shape of a book and was told that I should definitely seek to publish it. Nevertheless, they now want me to make substantial changes to the structure by inserting a whole new chapter (not new material, just shifting around stuff that is already there) to make it into a more traditional "Research report" format, I.e methods chapter, literature chapter, etc). This means essentially butchering a text of which they themselves say it is perfectly fine and publishable for absolutely no good reason than to make it "gravitate more towards the mean" ( verbatim) of what a Phd thesis should look like.

I have been angrier and more frustrated over the past week than ever before in my life, and everyone congratulating me isn't helping. I'm not upset I have corrections - the internal made a very good suggestion on another point that I am happy to accept. But this restructuring to me appears pointless and a complete waste of time, and I profoundly disagree that it is necessary - wasn't allowed to contest it in the viva tho because the external was already out for blood.

do I have any leeway negotiating on the corrections when I get them? Can I refuse to accept this one or ask for another way of addressing the externals concerns? Can they still refuse to give me the phd if I don't do as they say?