The defence of your thesis

B.S. WARRIER

Here is how the concluding part of your research effort should be handled.
Photo: Murali Kumar K.

SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION: In the final analysis, your thesis should be complete in all essential
respects.

"The best thesis is a done thesis!"

The all-important stage is the one where you make your `defence' of the thesis. This is no war where a
group of experts are ranged against the solitary researcher. Never take it as a defence, but just a
presentation of your ideas over which you have given your deepest thought during the past few years. You
are sure of all the diverse aspects of the topic, perhaps far better than the members of the jury before you.
Your objective is to convince your audience that you have done your job well, your methodology is sound
and the findings are useful. In experimental topics, all your important findings should be based on repeated
experiments which should be repeatable by anyone else.

It is a good idea to know in advance the duration you would get for the presentation, so that you can plan
and make use of the time allotted most effectively. If you are asked to finish the presentation in the next
two minutes when you are only midway, you will end up badly bruised. That has to be avoided at all costs.

You must have discussed various aspects with your friends and colleagues and gathered the possible
questions that are likely to be raised. The comments should be taken as valuable. So also, any new idea
coming from a member of the expert panel should be welcomed. Your listening and comprehension levels
should be at the peak. Your clarifications should be clear and convincing. Never go into arguments. Your
confidence gets boosted, if you approach the situation with a feeling that the expert panel is there to help
you. After all, your long effort is reaching its concluding stage of success. In fact you are not alone; your
supervisor also has a role in the entire process of research and thesis preparation.
It was mentioned that the structure and style of your thesis should be in tune with the style of your
organisation. But a thesis would normally have the following:

Declaration by the scholar using phrases such as ``I hereby declare that this submission is my own work
and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by
another person nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other
degree or diploma of any university or institute of higher learning, except where due acknowledgment has
been made in the text. (Signature / Name / Date).'' Your institution may have a standard in this case as
well.

Title page: It will contain the title of the thesis, author's name with an indication that it is being submitted
for the degree of PhD in the concerned faculty / University), and the date of submission.

Example: "TOPIC" by "AUTHOR" submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor
of Philosophy in the Faculty of "X" in the University of "Y", October 2006.

Signature of Author -

Certified by -Thesis supervisor

Accepted by - Chairman, Departmental Committee on Theses

Abstract: This should be drafted with utmost care, since this is the part that would be read the most, and
would find a place in many future journals. This is a concise description of the problem addressed, the
methodology employed in resolving the problem, the findings, and conclusions. It is a distillate that reflects
the entire work. The work in miniature.

Acknowledgements: A line expressing gratitude to all those individuals or institutions that helped you in the
process (advice, scientific / technical / financial support, etc.). If yours is a collaborative endeavour, the
individual contributions of a substantial nature may be indicated.

Table of contents: The chapter headings, the subheadings, and their respective page numbers. You may use
the Arabic numerals in numbering from the page of the introduction; the pages before it may be in Roman
numerals.

Introduction: This should embrace the significance of the topic and its place in the overall scheme of things
in your vast discipline, the relevance of the study, and the problem statement couched in a fascinating style
and in a language that a non-expert in the particular area of study can easily follow. The introduction should
arouse curiosity and interest in the reader to go through your long document.

Literature review: This would encompass genesis of the problem in your mind, the extent of knowledge
already available, and a fairly extensive list of significant papers or other work in the area along with the
summary of their relevant findings. This can be prepared easily if you have kept proper records as
mentioned in the early part of this series.

The core chapters: The structure of the core varies widely with the discipline and the nature of the topics.
None can put forward a pattern to be followed universally. Detailed descriptions of the theories and
hypotheses involved, different problems and the methodology adopted in resolving them, the materials and
methods used, the experimental investigations carried out, the diverse techniques resorted to during the
long exercise of study, significant revelations during the course of the work, and arguments that led you to
the conclusions should find a place in the core. Arguments may be conveniently presented as a series of
numbered or bulleted points, rather than as one chunk in a crowded paragraph.
The theories that you expound should not go to a boring extent. What is essential for the development of
the main theme is sufficient. If at all you have published a few papers in journals on certain aspects of your
work, a mechanical compilation of the papers cannot substitute the independent writing of your thesis. Your
papers would have suffered the constraints of length and detail to agree with the norms of the concerned
journals. Your own thesis naturally offers you much more freedom in terms of length, breadth, and depth of
the treatment. You are the judge. You have to make your product self-supporting. It can stand out in
quality, without pressures from external constraints.

Findings and discussions: It would be convenient to combine the two, since you may have to repeat the
findings for the purpose of discussions if you choose to handle them separately. You should establish how
well your results smoothly dovetail into the existing body of knowledge.

In the discussions, each argument should normally be supported by reported reference publications or by
your own data. A thesis carrying elaborate experimental data, but only limited discussion, makes a poor
impression.

Conclusions

Recommendations for future work: Mentions further unexplored areas, which future researchers may
conquer.

Appendices: It was mentioned earlier that things that are relevant but would obstruct the free flow of your
logical exposition in the text may be moved to the appendix part of the document. References to web sites
may be done with utmost care. Some of them may contain unreliable material and even disappear in course
of time. If you go for them, make sure that you indicate the date of your download.

References, Bibliography

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