Nearly Failed Viva
Quote From littleowl:
Thank you for sharing - I really enjoyed reading this. With my own viva coming up on Wednesday (eeeek!!) it's all good grist for the mill. I don't feel as though I've done nearly enough preparation, but at the same time I suspect I will never really feel as if I've done enough!
My supervisors both say they're pretty sure I'll pass with minor corrections, but reading this cautionary tale I'll know not to take that for granted!
Thank you for sharing - I really enjoyed reading this. With my own viva coming up on Wednesday (eeeek!!) it's all good grist for the mill. I don't feel as though I've done nearly enough preparation, but at the same time I suspect I will never really feel as if I've done enough!
My supervisors both say they're pretty sure I'll pass with minor corrections, but reading this cautionary tale I'll know not to take that for granted!
Thanks. How did it go littleowl?
Quote From lizziejamescaroon:
This is a great blog - thank you! And thanks so much for the info re originality. I had a PhD (Humanities)interview recently and the first question was 'how will your proposed research make an original contribution to the field?'. Threw me completely! The source material is untouched by the academy ie it is pretty niche but beyond that, I didn't have an answer! Beginning to understand the 'originality' thing a bit more..
Many congratulations on passing and your advice is really helpful, even though I am just applying.
Lizzie
This is a great blog - thank you! And thanks so much for the info re originality. I had a PhD (Humanities)interview recently and the first question was 'how will your proposed research make an original contribution to the field?'. Threw me completely! The source material is untouched by the academy ie it is pretty niche but beyond that, I didn't have an answer! Beginning to understand the 'originality' thing a bit more..
Many congratulations on passing and your advice is really helpful, even though I am just applying.
Lizzie
That's nice of you! I might have taken a bit too long to get there. I guess once you learn how to write 80k words, it's difficult to lose the habit ;)
I'm doing my thesis corrections now. They are going OK. My externals were quite good and provided a relatively straightforward 'to do' list. It reads like 'insert critical here' and 'insert critical comment there'.
For me, corrections have been just like having another 3 months on the thesis. Funny thing is, I'm not actually sick of it. Although when I get bored, I have been procrastinating a lot!
*Plays Flappy Bird*
Quote From pianissimo:
I just wish there was something more than online chat here... Come on people, share your "nearly failed viva" experience.
I just wish there was something more than online chat here... Come on people, share your "nearly failed viva" experience.
You're a difficult customer!
I've finished my thesis corrections now. I'm pretty sure that my internal examiner didn't even read them. I did improve the thesis significantly, but it will pretty much languish unread in future. I think that's the fate of many theses.
I've learnt a lot. I submitted too soon, but also the project wasn't well conceived. It wasn't critical/evaluative. That's not to say it wasn't complex, or hard, but it wasn't what is conventionally seen as doctoral research work.
Still, I like technical writing. I won't give up on it. And for the future, I've learnt a lot of lessons.
Quote From TheGoodShip:
You're a difficult customer!
I've finished my thesis corrections now. I'm pretty sure that my internal examiner didn't even read them. I did improve the thesis significantly, but it will pretty much languish unread in future. I think that's the fate of many theses.
I've learnt a lot. I submitted too soon, but also the project wasn't well conceived. It wasn't critical/evaluative. That's not to say it wasn't complex, or hard, but it wasn't what is conventionally seen as doctoral research work.
Still, I like technical writing. I won't give up on it. And for the future, I've learnt a lot of lessons.
Quote From pianissimo:
I just wish there was something more than online chat here... Come on people, share your "nearly failed viva" experience.
I just wish there was something more than online chat here... Come on people, share your "nearly failed viva" experience.
You're a difficult customer!
I've finished my thesis corrections now. I'm pretty sure that my internal examiner didn't even read them. I did improve the thesis significantly, but it will pretty much languish unread in future. I think that's the fate of many theses.
I've learnt a lot. I submitted too soon, but also the project wasn't well conceived. It wasn't critical/evaluative. That's not to say it wasn't complex, or hard, but it wasn't what is conventionally seen as doctoral research work.
Still, I like technical writing. I won't give up on it. And for the future, I've learnt a lot of lessons.
With http://ethos.bl.uk (or other national electronic repositories) and University electronic repositories, theses do get read these days. Perhaps they still don't get as much coverage as journal papers but they do get read.
My repository copy is downloaded about 7 times a month, another copy on http://www.academia.edu is downloaded 14 a month and as for Ethos, I've no idea.
The thesis became the basis for a book chapter (as well as being broken up into papers) and the analytical statistics on http://www.academia.edu suggest twice as many reads on the book chapter as the thesis itself.
Ian
