Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Tips
Edited by Laura Morrison, for GradSchools.com, April 2014
Do you know what to wear to a dissertation defense meeting? Are you prepared to defend a
thesis paper? Read our dissertation defense tips below!
Thesis writing is one of the most important and challenging tasks you will encounter as a graduate
student, and the thesis defense is the culmination of that process.
The thesis defense procedure may vary from college to college but generally you will be expected to
announce your thesis defense appointment in your graduate department, and your committee is
likely to meet before and after your defense. By the time you are ready to present your defense, your
thesis paper should be nearly complete, and some schools may require that your thesis paper be
completely finished.
During your thesis defense, you will be expected to present and defend your thesis in front of your
advisor, faculty thesis committee, and other audience members - and to do so in a cohesive manner.
You can expect to be asked a number of questions after your presentation, and you need to be
armed with the knowledge and skill necessary to answer the questions confidently.
Showtime
No matter how nervous you are, be sure to focus and to listen with care to the questions posed to
you. Take a moment to pause before you give your answer if you need to - they are not looking for
quick responses, but they are looking for solid ones. You should expect to be asked to address the
more controversial aspects of your thesis. Keep in mind that you don't have to defend everything
about your thesis. If you don't have an answer to a question, don't fake it or make any promises -
reply that the question is interesting and that you will consider it in the future. Defending your thesis
requires you to be political to a certain extent.
If you are having trouble with managing your fears while defending your thesis, you may find it
helpful to use visual aids during your presentation. They can help you stay focused and confident, as
well as help you pace yourself. Visual aids, if you use them, should clearly state the research
problem, objectives, approaches, and the contributions of your thesis work.
You may also decide to videotape or audiotape your defense, as it can help you keep track of the
reactions, suggestions, and criticisms that you receive. Often your thesis committee members will
offer tips for revision. These could be crucial as you revise your work for later publication or
development. But you will be so focused on what you need to say next during your thesis defense
that you will very likely not remember much of what the professors said after the fact. If you
document the session, you will later be able to retrieve and follow the expert advice your thesis
committee offered during your defense.
One of the most crucial things to remember when defending your thesis is to maintain a level of
passion about your research. If you are passionate about your work, your advisor and committee will
take note of this, and it will underscore the importance of your thesis. After all, who isn't passionate
about the concluding event of a long and difficult journey?
Bows
After you have presented your defense, you will either be told that you have passed, that your thesis
needs minor revisions, that your thesis needs to be resubmitted, or that it has not been approved.
The last two possibilities are rare, especially if you have followed the thesis writing process properly,
and if you have stayed in meaningful contact with your advisor. If you have been diligent, there really
should be few surprises.
Recently, a fellow graduate student defended his masters thesis. He set the record
for the shortest time to degree in our College with a nice job lined up afterwards.
But that also meant he never presented his work at a conference, or a
department/college seminar. This was his first- and most important big talk. What
follows are the top 10 tips I gave him at one point or another as he was preparing
that should be a help to anyone getting ready for a big talk.
2) Justify Yourself
An introduction is more than just a history of your field up until now. That is, its
more than a literature review. You need to review the current literature, but more
importantly put your research into context. What have you done (or what are you
doing) that no one else has done? Keep in mind that just because no one else has
done X doesnt mean doing X is worthwhile- there might be a very good reason why
no one else has done it! As you introduce your research youll likely explain why
youre doing it, but make sure you also explain why others in the field care. Even
more important that justifying your work is justifying your conclusions. You MUST be
able to back up any claims with solid references, or solid experimental results! In
many cases this means statistical tests of quantitative data. When in doubt, err on
the side of inconclusive or qualify/temper any of your statements rather than
stretch your conclusions.
3) Tell A Story
One of the most jarring moments in a bad presentation is the lack of transitions.
Your presentation should flow from slide to slide and section to section. This will
most likely mean that you arent going to present your experiments in the order
that you did them. Youre NOT telling the story of you working in the lab! Think:
what are the overall conclusions from your work and how can you explain and prove
the things youve concluded? Walk your audience through the story, laying out the
evidence convincing them youre right about your conclusions. One last thing:
youve (hopefully) done a lot of experiments, youve invested a lot of time, energy,
and maybe even money into these experiments and you want to show off
everything youve done. But if an experiment or data slide doesnt fit in the story
you might have to leave it out. If you cant make it fit in the flow of your story
and/or you dont NEED it: leave it out.
Make sure any images have scale bars, and label items of interest. (You might know
whats a cell and whats dust, but everyone else might not!) Use the same size,
color, and font text.Try to use the same slide layout.
Make all your graphs, diagrams, molecular depictions, etc. with the same program
throughout. Its noticeable if you copied one molecule from a paper, made some in
ChemDraw, and others with ChemSketch. The same holds true with graphs in Excel
versus Origin.
Excel can be your friend but if you use the default graph settings it will be your
downfall. Dont leave on the gridlines or use the standard random colors. Oh, and
look into Origin.
10) Be humble
You know your research, your techniques, your experiments, and your data. But you
might get questions a little removed (or a lot removed) from your research. You
might even get questions you dont know the answer to, or arent sure about. The
best advice I can give someone going into a defense- even last minute- is dont be
afraid to say I dont know. Guessing, or even worse, making something up, is so
much worse that admitting you dont know the answer to a question. Ive seen
professors who will grill a student and not stop until they say I dont know or they
catch them answering wrong (guessing/making something up). Youll never know
everything about everything so dont be afraid to say I dont know. But it is
inexcusable to guess or make up an answer- it will only get more painful from that
point on. On the flip side, dont answer every question with I dont know- its not a
get out of jail free card!