Hello,

I apologize if this comes off as a silly post.

I am in my final year of my phd in the process of putting together my first draft of my thesis and I am going to be meeting my supervisors to discuss my viva and examiners.

I have an idea of who I would want as my external given his expertise and the fact that I have cited his work extensively. He would also make a great referee in the future (well-established, regularly publishes, high-ranking university etc.)

Yet I feel lost and its embarrassing to admit it at this stage of my phd. I am not sure what questions to ask with regards to my non-empirical chapters (empirical chapters are complete and 2/3 are published) and my viva examiners.

Can anyone perhaps share some tips? I have struggled throughout the four years of my studies to ask my supervisors critical questions and I feel it may have been interpreted as a lack of interest or even laziness on my part. But its not the case, I just don’t know how to ask the right/good questions.