The Faculty of Graduate Studies here at Dalhousie University wants to be helpful to students, faculty and staff. The resource crunch we are dealing with makes extending our helpfulness much more difficult and it is likely to get a lot worse before it gets any better. But there are a couple of ways to add value that aren't very expensive. Offering useful advice is one way. Hence the lecture this week.
As someone who has chaired something in the order of 85 PhD defences over the last five years, I've seen a lot of interesting things. My "expertise" is data modelling in a management setting; this does not prepare me well for understanding a PhD presentation in biochemistry, physics, oceanography, and three dozen other domains. What to do when the scientists are have a profound debate about polyubiquitination?
I took notes. Notes on how effective the oral presentation was. When the candidate got into trouble. What kind of questions were a problem. What common thoughts were offered during the in camera session. What external examiners had to say publicly and privately about the performance of our students.
You get a lot of notes in the course of 85 defences, enough to provide content for a presentation on "How to Defend Your Dissertation." And a very popular presentation this turned out to be. There were 52 people in chairs, another 12 seated on other horizontal surfaces, and a further 12 students standing, including a number in the hall. And it was not because Lady Gaga or equivalent showed up to perform either.
We tried something a little different and video recorded the session. We will post this once we get it chopped into small enough piece to actually load, and I will adjust this blog with the URL of the page to access it. In the meantime, I offer a little preview of the content. Everything has to be considered in the context of the expectations of the discipline, whose norms almost always trump anything said below.
What is a good dissertation defence? There are 3 parts:
Dissertation elements
- contribution to knowledge;
- research as conducted and its outcome;
- overall document quality.
Presentation elements
- overall understanding of the subject;
- clear evidence the student did the work;
- ability to communicate the core of the work.
Candidate elements
- appropriate socialization into the tacit norms of the discipline;
- appropriate balance between confidence and modesty
What the institution / supervisor can do to increase the likelihood of success?
- Ensuring the student is ready, really ready.
- Arranging the most appropriate external examiner.
- Conducting an internal defence, with other graduate students as examiners.
- Giving students as many opportunities as possible to present work, internally and externally.
- Helping students publish early and often.
- Building student presentation skills, using a video presentation and one-on-one critiquing.
Advice for students
- Go to a defense, preferably in a related discipline.
- Backup and version control for both the document and the presentation is vital.
- Make sure you know something about the work of the external examiner.
- Know your “so what”?
- Have absolute command of the vocabulary in your dissertation.
- Have command over your (null) hypotheses.
- Have command over the literature. That means the most recent literature too, not just the seminal article from 1976.
- Have complete command of the data that you collected.
- Anticipate and prepare for the obvious questions, (since you did the research, you should know what they are).
- Arrive early to arrange the room. Best practice – see the room a couple of days before.
- Dress for a job interview.
- Do not trust the technology – have a Plan B.
- Get the laptop ahead of time, or use your own.
- Load the presentation the day before and make sure it works.
- Do at least one practice session with laptop & projector.
- Turn off the screen saver. The desktop picture. Turn off Skype.
- Bring water.
- Go to the bathroom.
- Bring your own markers for the white board.
- Edit your work closely. What does the phrase "edit your work closely" mean?
- “As you know, I choose one [bibliography] page at random and check every one. I live in hope of finding one that is perfect.” One examiners unfulfilled dream.
- People who have already published, especially in good ranking journals, almost always have an easier time of it.
- Be clear with symbols, conventions, figures, tables (i.e., having an appropriate legend).
- A word from the Academic Integrity Officer. If the German Defense Minister can’t get away with it, do you feel lucky?
- If you are an ESL person and your maternal tongue has a speaking rate faster than English, speak more slowly.
- Do NOT read the slides.
- Time management - put your watch on the table.
- Be able to defend every assertion whether you do this by…
- Be prepared to defend your methodology, and your analytical framework by …
- If you have statistical analyses, what do the various parameters and tests actually mean?
- Know what you can say and what you can not say based on the evidence, and the methods used.
- Reference comprehensively including testing precedents. (i.e., precedents for the testing practices you are using).
Understand the methods of measurement and the units of measurement you refer to in your dissertation and know exactly what they mean. - If there are alternative measures, know what they are and what the choices in using one or the other might be.
- You must understand the specifics of your measurement tools. If you're working in a lab with specific technology you should have some idea of how it works.
- Do not believe any examiner who claims that one of your chapters is simply over his head.
- Beware of simple questions.
- You are not done after the presentation.
- Think for yourself; there is no point in looking into the faces of the examiners for answers. They may not know the answer to the question they are asking.
- Good phrases to remember:
I don’t know.
That’s a good question.
You are right.
This is a very quick rundown of the presentation, without the horror stories of course. Good luck to all the defenders!
Sunny