Hi

I have just received an email with my necessary corrections and one item is confusing me. I made my own list on the day thankfully and one item which appears in the email was not requested on the day as part of corrections. Is this allowed? My supervisor was present for the debrief session so I could confirm that it was not requested. We did discuss it but no one requested that I change anything (and I am not sure they have understood what I presented correctly anyway).

I have asked my internal for clarification but he is away until next week. Easter holidays are a pain! I am not trying to be lazy but it would be a major pain to change and I think there has been some misunderstanding of what I did. I don't personally think it is a useful change. Bizarrely, one thing they did request verbally for change does not feature in the email although I have already made this amendment. It is useful so I am leaving it.

What would you do?

What would I do?

In your position I would heave myself into town and buy a stack of cut-price Easter Eggs, kick back on the sofa and give myself kudos whilst eating chocolate.

Congrats on completing.

Thanks Chrisrolinski . I am trying not to eat too much chocolate as I am supposed to be dieting (boring I know!).

The more I think about this it seems that no one except for me, made a list on the day and post Easter they are desperately trying to remember what they said. Other things they asked for in person are not featured on the list although I have still made these changes. I think it is a memory lapse.

Corrections must be so annoying. Are you re-reading it and wanting to change and add bits? Or is this not allowed, and you're sick of it anyway!?

I truly don't know if you are allowed to change things not discussed or not. I haven't but you are right, I would love to. I will restrain myself though. I have of course changed typos etc etc.

Corrections are a major pain, you think it is over but it is not! I am forcing myself to do them this week though as I can't avoid them forever.

fluffymonster, I'm sure someone with more experience is going to answer your question here (where is Ann?). But as far as I know, somebody else should have been keeping notes. Otherwise it would be your word against theirs in every case. If this extra change wasn't something that inconvenient, you wouldn't mention it here. So it must be very annoying for you. The key person sounds to be your internal who is not available until next week. Would waiting for his return affect your work very much? Do you have someone in your school's research office that you can talk to? Just to find out about the correct procedure.

Thanks 404, I think I will have to wait until my internal is back after holidays. I am just being inpatient as I promised myself I would try and get them all sorted this week. I think I will try to do everything bar that one.

You are right, it is not something silly or I would just do it!

I will try to find out the correct procedure though, good idea.

Hi Fluffy

You're more diligent me - I don't think I looked at my thesis for up to a month afterwards! (well, I did go on a conference, trhen on holiday, then i was ill...)

Re. the corrections. You are absolutely right to query this. Corrections that are required should be verbally raised at the end of the viva. They should be made explicit and the internal examiner should also state that written confirmation of requirements will be sent to you.

If something was listed that was not indicated as a correction at the time, that MUST be queried as you have had no chance to assert your side of it - which is the whole point of a viva!

I know it means waiting for your internal to return, but do ask him/her. It could be somehting simple like then inserting a query point that they noted in the viva that you'd already defended - it does happen!

Thanks Kronkondile! They have given me 30 days to do the corrections so I don't have much choice to be honest. I am at a conference the week after next so it will have to be done by then.

I did defend this in the viva and I thought it was all sorted. I will let you know as I have already sent my internal an email querying this. I am also going to speak to my supervisor as I know for a fact it was not requested (he can verify this if he was listening!)

If they did insist on you amending the issue in question, I think you coudl quite reasonably request an extra week or two to get the corrections in.

If I were you I would make sure that your uni research student office is aware of this situation anyway - after all, they usually receive copies of the corrections from the examiners and are so thorough about these things they too will want to know exactly what it is you're required to do

Thanks Kronkondile, for some reason I have only just seen your last response.

I know 404 was asking about this today too on a separate thread but I thought you guys might want to know that this has been sorted. I need to address the point in question but can do so simply by justifying the approach I took (and not making the changes I thought they were asking for). I am very ! I am hoping to have a final corrected copy later this week for my internal to look at.

Congrats on sitting the viva and passing with minor coorections.This might not be relevant but I really would like to know how long it took you to finish your PhD, from the starting point until you sat for the viva.

Thanks Sheena. It took 4 years bar 5 days! I was part time though. I was complex as I was an RA for most of that (F/T) with overlapping projects. For the last 9 months I took up a p/t teaching position.

Fluffy, you have done SO SO well, most of us could never finish given the other work you had to do. Like you say, tenacity, but also you're a bit of a clever monster too!