Hey all!

So I've started to prepare for my viva, after handing in my thesis on Monday. Because I was in a rush, I didn't have the chance to check it through quite as thoroughly as I would have liked. Now I'm reading it through, I've noticed a fair few typos and other (fairly minor) errors. Normally I'd never hand in a piece of work that hadn't been checked through with a fine toothcomb, and I'm a bit mortified at the errors I've overlooked (although I'm reasonably happy with the content).

Will these just go down as minor corrections? How many typos etc can you make and still get minor corrections? I've seen previous posts on this issue but I suppose I'm just looking for more reassurance!

Thanks! A nervous KB

You can have hundreds of typos and still pass with minor corrections. Note them down in a list. Take it into the viva. Hand it to the examiners. Correct the typos afterwards. It won't swing you from minor to major. Typos are very easily and quickly fixed. Ditto for any silly small errors you spot.

I have only found typos quantified in one doctoral handbook, which requires that:

"The text has been carefully checked ... complete elimination of such errors is very difficult,
and insertion of a few corrections at a later stage is usually allowed ... but more than one error per page is not considered acceptable".

At which (being an editor) I almost choked!

I've read quite a few theses (not in their entirety) on ethos that have hundreds of typos in. I've also read through 3 from my own department who passed with no corrections that are just awful! (So wishing I had the same examiners!)

Hey KB, do not worry about these typos and small errors. As Bilbo has said, they are very easily and quickly corrected post viva.  I actually did correct mine as I read through the thesis, just to save time post viva. The list of corrections that I made comprised of a table spanning about 2 A4 sides of paper which I had a copy for everyone in the viva.  However, my sup advised I kept hold of it until they mentioned typos etc - they never mentioned it and I didn't divulge!! Obviously, they were all corrected for the final submitted thesis post viva.

What is more important is the quality of the content and this is what you should have confidence in.  Your examiners would be aiming their questions at your methodology and interpretation of your findings. If they are only discussing your typos and that is all they have noticed, well they must be pretty happy with the content lol. In an ideal world we would have no errors in our thesis but even after a thesis is dusted off the shelf there will be more to find.  Keep your focus on your methods, findings and justifications but note the errors as you go along ;-)

Have a virtual cake to keep you going (mince)

Thanks- that sounds okay! I have seen about a dozen small-ish mistakes/typos acros the whole thesis so I guess that isn't too bad. Still, I don't think I've ever handed in anything with a single typo is before so I am a bit annoyed, but that's what you get for rushing things in before the deadline I suppose...I had to sacrifice some time to prepare for Wednesday's interview, but at least I got a good outcome from that! Cheers, KB

I really messed up my thesis in terms of typos and forgetting half (literally) the references at the the end but still passed with minor corrections, when I went to hand them a list of typs they thought it was hilarious that I'd been that worried about it! They said so long as they were all fixed they were completely happy and said they had seen far far worse.....

Does a typo make your work any less valid? Unless there are literally hundreds, making the thesis illegible than I would say no. Even if there were 150 typos to sort out it would still be minor corrections in my book, just a lot of them. So don't worry.

Your examiners know that you had no leeway on the deadline, so I'm sure they won't mind. I'm pretty sure it's not like a driing est where >x minors=a major!

Congrats on the job offer btw!

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I've been wondering about this, and thought I remembered a thread from before.

I've found 94 errors is 238 pages :$ Majority are fairly minor and about 10 are where ENDNOTE has been a pain rather than things I've messed up (though careful proofreading would have revealed them), but a couple actually change the meaning to the opposite of what is intended (double :$) It could be worse - my early chapters are worse that later ones and I was beginning to wonder whether I'd be finding hundreds of errors.

Anyway in 24 hours I'll be walking into the room .......................... eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

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My submitted PhD was well over 500 pages long and contained many many errors and typos- ie into the hundreds! I literally ran out of time and did not have the time to re-read my thesis and check for typos. I'm embarrassed to look at my submitted PhD now due to sheer numbers of errors!

I was really very worried about failing, but they were actually really lovely during the viva and only mentioned the typos 1-2 times. My examiners understood I ran out of time etc and I obtained the resubmission outcome I wanted.

My viva was more about my reflections on the whole process and a discussion about how to reduce my thesis and also my thoughts about specific topics. I thought it would be the ultimate grilling session picking out every little typo and ripping me to shreads, but it really was a relatively informal chat- although I never believed that for one second waiting for the viva.

Depends on the examiner though. If my examiners were really really picky then I imagine they could have grilled me really hard and insisted that I really fight for a resubmission.

Best of luck Cat! :)

All the best for tomorrow CB. You've done all you can, just try to get a good nights sleep, if possible, as that will benefit you more than anything else at this stage. Good luck!

Thanks Pinapple. I verge from feeling confident to feeling rubbish. I'm hoping it'll be fairly brief - who wants to do a long viva on a Friday afternoon?!
I re read my general discussion today and feel it was actually pretty ok. But some other bits of my thesis have had me cringing at the language/use of grammer/ and lack of really concluding properly in places.

Still my internal told my supervisor that my external has made mainly possitive comments. But I don't want to get my hopes up and then get seriously grilled.