Doctoral research is required to ‘make a contribution to knowledge.’  To achieve that goal candidates have to combine certain critical signposts that demonstrate doctorateness.  In this process, candidates will display scholarship, originality and specific aspects of presentation that collectively make their thesis shine. This will be appreciated by examiners. Examiners look for many features in doctoral theses.  They consider certain factors to be critical because they are essential components of a doctoral thesis and represent pre-requisites that demonstrate high quality research. These include the candidate’s choices of paradigms, philosophical assumptions and handling academic discourse to explain how the research was undertaken. Making their thinking visible on these issues involves justifying each research decision that is made. Thus, a doctoral thesis is expected to present writing that includes textual signposts that make the research process explicit.

So, how can candidates be assisted to signpost these features in their writing?

The workshop will emphasize the inescapable pre-requisites for a thesis to be accepted as doctorally-worthy. These insights will help candidates appreciate the 'whole' and 'the parts' that form synergy between the account of the research that has been undertaken and the written text.

The presentation will include both theory and practice. Examples will illustrate how simple items of text and presentation will elevate the quality of that text for readers. Participants will be encouraged to interact with each other and discuss these issues in relation to their own research.

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