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Writing Up
Writing Up and Preparing to Submit
The prospect of completing and handing in a thesis is both daunting
and liberating. For me it was the most intense and perhaps the most
difficult of the stages of writing. The following is a list of possible
ideas to bear in mind when approaching completion.
Set yourself a deadline:
The deadline may be self-imposed or may be a matter of practical
necessity. For me it was a combination of the two. I wanted to complete
within three years, around the time that my funding was due to run
out, and before taking up a full time teaching position which would
have made it more difficult to complete my thesis. I set myself
both an ‘ideal’ deadline and a ‘no later than’
deadline – allowing myself six weeks flexibility between the
two. The thesis was finally handed in a day before the ‘no
later than’ deadline!
Think about your conclusion:
I didn’t want my conclusion to be a pure summation of the
contents of my thesis. With this in mind, I gave myself the time
to consider the conclusion as a short additional piece of research
– in my case, having worked on C19 literature, I asked myself
the question – ‘what happens when we get to the C20?’
This enabled me to work on a short comparison of Beckett and nineteenth
century writers, and perhaps gave me more enthusiasm for the process
of concluding.
Allow yourself time:
Give yourself time for all the extras that end up taking more time
than you might anticipate – abstract, bibliography, acknowledgements
and so on. The process of compiling a bibliography is helped by
the use of the Endnote programme. Also bear in mind the time needed
for the really mundane things, such as printing and checking. I
found typos even as I was printing what I thought was the final
draft.
Check, check and check:
It’s worth trying to read your thesis through as often as
you can before submission – but allowing some time between
readthroughs. You notice things on a fourth, fresh reading, that
might never have occurred first time around. Also try and get someone
else, other than your supervisor, to read through a draft –
it can be useful for challenging both your broad ideas (handy even
at this late stage, if only for preparing for the viva) and the
smaller details such as typos.
It has to end at some point!
Despite all the necessary checking, and the desire to just go and
read one or two more things – you have to draw a line at some
point. That’s why having a deadline and trying to stick to
it is really useful – the thesis can become interminable,
so don’t let it become so. Handing the thesis in can be a
wrench – I just thought ‘I want it back!’ as soon
as I’d handed it over. Remember that you can chase up extra
reading as preparation for the viva, so don’t be tempted to
include everything you’ve read at the last minute. Good luck!
Kate Rees, recent postdoc, Flaubert, nineteenth century
literature and ideas of progress.
Preparing for your Viva
It is quite difficult to offer general advice about the viva because
there is no set pattern to the exam and everyone has a different
experience, but here are some tips which may be useful:
1) When you are preparing for your viva, it is important to think
about the main arguments in your thesis and how your work makes
an original contribution to your field. It is also a good idea to
identify the most contentious areas in your thesis and plan how
you might answer potential questions on them. Possible topics include
why you chose this particular methodology and how your work differs
from that of other scholars in your field.
2) It can be useful to do short chapter summaries before the exam
to help you to remember your main arguments. Your supervisor may
be able to arrange a practice viva with members of your university
department, but even if this is not possible, try asking your friends
or family if they would mind testing you with some general questions.
This will help you to feel more confident on the day.
3) During the actual exam, try not to panic if you are asked a difficult
question. You are allowed to take some time to think about your
answer and you can also ask the examiner to clarify the question
further. This should give you a chance to plan a more structured
answer and will hopefully trigger links to other areas you would
prefer to discuss!
4) There are a lot of good websites which can give you more advice
about the viva. A very helpful one is the Postgraduate Online Research
Training (PORT) website which specialises in Arts subjects: www2.sas.ac.uk/igrs/port.
Sussex and Manchester universities also offer guidance to postgraduate
students from different faculties.
Sally Clark, recent postdoc, Language and Molière.
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