PhD Coaching Blog — Thesis

Matt Might has diagrammed the PhD this way in his brilliant Illustrated Guide to the PhD.  I love it because he cleverly shows that doctoral research pushes beyond the edges of what is known, to discover new knowledge outside the boundaries of the human record. This is what examiners are looking for. In fact, they can't award the PhD unless you've demonstrated that you have made an original contribution to what is already known.  You have to poke at the edge of human understanding and find your own Eureka! moment. And that's hard.  You're in unchartered territory.  You find yourself the world's...

One of the things I love to do is to bring my coaching clients together in small groups to chat and exchange advice on Zoom.  But in the free drop-in today it was a special treat to spend time with a candidate who had graduated a last month, and was happy to share his experiences.  One issue that he emphasized was the choice of supervisor.  As all doctoral candidates know, the supervisor has the power to approve your thesis and move you on to your oral defense (or Viva if you're in the UK), So having a supervisor who is interested...

At least that’s what I tell PhD candidates.  Yes, I assure them, it’s slightly uncomfortable but if you want to use the American Psychological Association (APA)Style Guide, you have to spend a lot of time with the manual! And just in case you’re just starting your academic writing and are not sure what a Style Guide is used for, it’s to ensure consistency in citations, reference lists, formatting and layout.  So, if you want to know how long your dashes should be, a good Style Guide will help you with that. I’ve never quite understood why a manual developed by...

In our small group free webinar today we discussed Conclusions, because I believe it's always a good idea to think about endings. Don't wait until the last few months of your doctoral journey to think about your Conclusion. Why? Well, in the first place, many researchers are frightened at the thought of writing a Conclusion, imagining that it is a complex, difficult thing to do. So they procrastinate and then don't leave enough time to write it. Also, students may think it's premature to think about the ending when they've just started the beginning.  What can possibly be done to prepare...