You\u2019ve written the defining work of your academic career \u2013 and now it\u2019s time to defend it. The prospect of explaining your research and answering questions about it in front of a committee of experts can certainly be daunting. Fortunately, you know the subject matter deeply, so success is mostly a matter of presentation and preparation.<\/p>\n
With that in mind, here are eight of the top things to do when preparing for your dissertation defense \u2013 from the beginning of your program to the day of your defense.<\/p>\n
Attend other people\u2019s defenses:<\/strong> Within the first year or two of your program, start attending the dissertation defenses of other students.[i]<\/sup> This will help you better understand what to expect.<\/p>\n Read your department\u2019s guidelines:<\/strong> Every department has slightly different guidelines for the timeline and preparation of a thesis defense. Read yours early and often, and discuss them with your advisor.<\/p>\n Start your dissertation:<\/strong> This should take between three and four months to write, and you\u2019ll want to submit a completed draft a month before your defense. This means you should start writing your thesis at least five months ahead of time.<\/p>\n Schedule your defense:<\/strong> You should coordinate the date, time and place of your defense as soon as possible, long before your dissertation is completed.[ii]<\/sup><\/p>\n Submit dissertation and any required paperwork:<\/strong> About a month before your defense, you should submit the final draft of your dissertation for faculty to read.[iii]<\/sup> Your committee members will need time to fully read it and come up with questions.<\/p>\n Research committee members:<\/strong> Talk to other people whose committees they\u2019ve served on, and ask what types of questions they tend to ask, and what their experiences were like.[iv]<\/a><\/sup> Read members\u2019 feedback to get an idea of possible questions.<\/p>\n Attend a pre-defense meeting:<\/strong> At the meeting, raise any issues or concerns you have, and ask what questions and issues might be raised during the defense.[v]<\/sup><\/p>\n Prepare your presentation:<\/strong> Prepare a 15-30 minute PowerPoint presentation, and make it as polished and professional as possible.[vi]<\/sup> Practice giving the presentation, including to friends and family if possible.<\/p>\n Select comfortable, professional clothes:<\/strong> Select your outfit \u2013 including accessories \u2013 a couple of weeks in advance. You don\u2019t want to worry about what to wear the day before your presentation.<\/p>\n Organize a small reception:<\/strong> If it\u2019s considered appropriate in your department, organize a small celebration following your defense for committee members, friends and family.[vii]<\/sup><\/p>\n Take a break for a few days:<\/strong> You\u2019re an expert, and you\u2019re prepared. Psychologists believe taking a short break can enhance memory, creativity and problem solving.[viii]<\/sup><\/p>\n Review everything one last time:<\/strong> The day before your defense, go through your information one last time, and practice your presentation again.<\/p>\n Defend, and amend:<\/strong> Remember, you are an expert presenting your research findings. You likely know more about your topic at this point than the committee members. Do your requested revisions the next day.[ix]<\/sup><\/p>\n [i]<\/a> http:\/\/www.proquest.com\/researchers\/graduate-student\/expert-advice-thesisdissertation\/Defending-your-Dissertation.html<\/a><\/p>\n [ii]<\/a> http:\/\/www.proquest.com\/researchers\/graduate-student\/expert-advice-thesisdissertation\/Defending-your-Dissertation.html<\/a><\/p>\n [iii]<\/a> http:\/\/asq.org\/edu\/2010\/01\/career-development\/preparing-for-the-oral-defense-of-a-dissertation.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n [iv]<\/a> https:\/\/graduate.asu.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/dissertation-defense.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n [v]<\/a> http:\/\/www.proquest.com\/researchers\/graduate-student\/expert-advice-thesisdissertation\/Defending-your-Dissertation.html<\/a><\/p>\n [vi]<\/a> https:\/\/graduate.asu.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/dissertation-defense.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n [vii]<\/a> http:\/\/www.proquest.com\/researchers\/graduate-student\/expert-advice-thesisdissertation\/Defending-your-Dissertation.html<\/a><\/p>\n [viii]<\/a> https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC3990058\/<\/a><\/p>\n [ix]<\/a> https:\/\/graduate.asu.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/dissertation-defense.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You\u2019ve written the defining work of your academic career \u2013 and now it\u2019s time to defend it. The prospect of explaining your research and answering questions about it in front…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":14369,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[22,88],"class_list":["post-14351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academia-government","tag-practical-guide","tag-researchers"],"acf":[],"lang":"en","translations":{"en":14351},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"pll_sync_post":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/academia-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/academia-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/academia-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/academia-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/academia-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14351"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/academia-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":287911,"href":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/academia-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14351\/revisions\/287911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/academia-government\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/academia-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/academia-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clarivate.com\/academia-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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