I have submitted my thesis end of last may ... and i feel worried cos i feel my thesis is week and not strong as it should be (written english). I have a brilliant/suffecient amout of work reported in my thesis which consists of eight chapters and i have one published paper in a very pupolar journal in my field and one conference paper in an international conference (poster presentation). Do you think the way my thesis written will effect the outcome of my phd viva .. do the external examiner will critcise my way of writting .. what is the worse could happen !!!! are my publications be a saviour ?

Hi last-samorai. First of all, congratulations on your submission. Your stlye of writing will certainly affect the way your results are viewed by others. If it is not done in a presentable way, then those who you are trying to get your results across might not get the message the way you intended it. However, it depends. if English is not your first language and you're not resident in a country that does not use English predominantly, you might be given some slack by your assessors (maybe)

Thanks Cryogenics .. actually i faced a hard time with my supervisour to read the pre-final draft of my thesis as he is not in the UK and he is in Malaysia !! it took him four months (may be more) to read one draft .. i asked for some assisstance from my co-sup to do some readings for me !! I told my sup. in malaysia that i decided to submit and he said to me i can submit but the thesis is not strong enough and at the same time he told me no need to send him any drafts to read which is ironic !! on the other hand my co-sup told me that my thesis contents and the amount of work done made my thesis reach to the standard that it can be submitted for examination and he also told me not to worry that much about the written style as the viva will give me the opportunity to clarify all vague points that the external couldnt understand and the fact that english is not my first language. I am just not keen to hear you have FAILED.

Well, if your supervisor has told you not to worry, then please do! (alright, just kidding) Now, I think you should ask yourself whether the content of, rather than the writing structure of your thesis is enough for you to pass.

Best wishes

If the work you have done is good and the only problem is your writen Enlish, the worst thing that could happen is that examiners will ask you to correct the language mistakes, i.e. you will pass with corrections. Just wonder- didnt you give your thesis for proofreading?