How to defend your thesis within the thesis: thinking, doing, writing

How examiners use certain identifiable features to judge the merits of theses are critical success factors and their importance should be recognised and used by candidates and supervisors through the doctoral journey.  Knowing what these features are, provide a practical framework from which to approach and undertake doctoral research: how to think, how to write and how to present and submit your thesis.  These features must be visible, explicit and accounted for in the thesis, so that scholarship of the thesis can be acknowledged by examiners.  This recognition applies equally whether a thesis is defended by a candidate in a face to face defence with examiners or when formal panels use examiner reports to undertake at a summative assessment without author/candidates attending. In both cases, the quality of the thesis almost always determines the assessment outcome.

The workshop will introduce inescapable pre-requisites for a thesis to become doctorally- worthy. It will provide insights and strategic tools to help candidates appreciate:

1. The ‘whole’ and the’ parts’ that form ‘synergy’ between the account of the research, that has been undertaken and the written text. 
2. The high quality of conceptualisation expected from a doctoral thesis and recognized by presentation of argument and structure, which make the thesis a coherent piece of research.  

The presentation will include both theory and practice where participants will be able to interact with each other and discuss issues regarding their own research.