Hi,
I am new to this forum, although I found it a few months ago in the write-up of my PhD and found it hugely comforting during some tense moments!
I submitted my thesis seven weeks ago and have my viva in two weeks (Social Sciences). Overall, the feedback on my thesis has been pretty positive over the four years. However, when I received my viva date and braved reviewing the thesis I noticed a lot more typos than I had expected (had an unexpected deadline imposed on me or the threat of additional fees...). Having read the threads on this forum, I notice a lot of members suggest preparing a list of corrected typos for the viva. I have prepared this list and was wondering if it might be a good idea to forward these to the examiners prior to the viva to acknowledge the various typos in advance (circa 100 in 100,000 word thesis)?
Has anyone done this - or heard of this as a process? I am pretty upset by the amount that slipped through and would like to do what I can to avoid examiners thinking I am careless and start the viva on a good note but am unsure if this might draw attention to errors they may not have noticed or if it shows (unfortunately belated) attention to fine detail. The errors are generally pretty small - 's' missing form nouns, occasional indent missing from quote etc
Any thoughts greatly welcomed :$

I haven't been through viva but would suggest you don't send this list in advance but keep the list, bring it to the viva and keep it on your person until the issue arises. I know it's easy for me to say but these are typos (minor things taking everything into account) and so try not to worry too much.

Good luck!(up)

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I'd agree with Delta.

Our website may help you too. It gives tips on preparation as well as a collection of viva experiences: www.phd-viva.com

All the best and good luck! :)

During my viva prep I made a list of all of the errors/typos which was more than I thought were present, but fortunately not too many! I kept this list with me during the viva so that I could show the examiners if the issue arose. The typos list never came out of my bag and in the final corrections given, only a few appeared. That said I did correct all of the typos etc for the final post viva copy.

Continue creating the list so that it gives you confidence in the viva in the fact that have covered these already. There will always be some typos/errors found in a thesis long after it has been completed so don't be harsh on yourself. It is the content that really matters.

Thanks for your coments. I think I might suggest that my supervisor hold off on sending the list for the moment then. Time to focus on the contents and arguments now and stop worrying about this for now :-)

Hi there,

I agree with the others. Remember minor corrections aka typos are acceptable *examiners can find them and ask to correct etc.*. It is the big problems that are more worrying e.g. something they find to be wrong in their point of view etc.

As such, from what you have told us, I don't think this is a problem. Please take a long deep breath and relax!

Best of luck.