Supervision of Research Students

‘How to Examine a Thesis’ Lynne Pearce, 2005 (available from the University Library) includes the following advice:

   ‘if you believe something is wrong, and needs changing, you are obliged to offer very specific instructions on how that is to be achieved’.

   ‘Needless to say, this requirement is a serious – and possibly useful – deterrent against examiners making glib and unspecified criticisms of a piece of work. However, many examiners persist in giving instructions which are inadequate and/ or ambiguous, leaving both candidate and supervisor with the anxious task of interpretation. There is also a tendency to simply reproduce the main points made in the pre-viva report and ignore how these may need to modified or expanded in the light of the viva discussion.

   A useful recommendation here is to be as selective as possible in the changes you ask for. Even though, in an ideal world, you might wish for far more substantial amendments, try and keep in mind the distinction between a ‘good enough’ thesis and prospective publications in which you would expect candidates to more rigorously revise and improve the work in question.

   Unless you have requested a [resubmission] there will, in any case, be a limit on what you can ask to be changed. Asking for changes that are strategic and symptomatic – rather than ones that are exhaustive – is therefore the sensible way forward. Here are some of the most useful recommendations you could make concerning corrections: 

• rephrase parts of the abstract so that it is a clear and accurate account of the thesis and what it attempts to do;
• rephrase the title of the thesis for similar reasons to the above;
• request changes to the introduction to signal more clearly to the reader what is to follow;
• insert paragraphs on methodology/ rationale if this has been overlooked;
• rewrite opening paragraphs of chapters to refocus the emphasis of each chapter if its current agenda is misleading;
• insert sentences to resolve points of ambiguity or generalization;
• insert footnotes for similar reasons to the above;
• ask for the conclusion (or parts thereof) to be rewritten).

   All these recommendations are made in the spirit of making the thesis as it stands as watertight as possible in those instances where a major rewrite is deemed unnecessary.’ (pg 94-95)

Adapted examples from sections of real reports:

There are four broad categories of changes we would like the candidate to address.

1. Areas for Expansion, Clarification or Deletion There are several areas we would like the candidate to expand on or strengthen their claims or delete.

The author should strengthen the discussions on pp.78-79 of XXX. Specifically, they should address the contention that it is problematic to XXXXX

2. Methods The methodological choices made in the thesis need to be made more explicit and justified with reference to the appropriate XXXXX methods literature. In terms of structure the candidate should create a separate methodological chapter which deals with all the issues mentioned below to come after chapter 1 and then edit the existing methods discussions in the empirical chapters. As discussed in the viva, the method chapter should address the following issues:

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

3. Length The thesis needs to be edited down to fit the 100,000 word limit. The thesis has a good deal of repetition which could be deleted. In particular, Part 1 of the work outlines the background in XXXXX in several places, which is returned to once more in part 2 – this should be heavily edited. An obvious way of doing this would be to restructure the chapters to create a more integrated approach to Part 1 but we will leave this to the candidate. The key issue is that the work is edited and repetition avoided.

4. Presentational Issues The thesis has various presentational and referencing issues that should be addressed. The main presentational areas for attention are listed below with some indicative examples. Please note however, the examples and list is not exhaustive.

• A variety of fonts have been used in the contents page and there are issues with the point size of the footnotes which should be smaller than the main text.

• The paragraph spacing not always consistent – e.g. pp. 29; pp. 39; pp. 61; pp. 102; pp. 116-117; pp. 132; pp. 165; throughout chapter 6.

• Proof reading is required

• Grammar – there are missing apostrophes in places; inconsistent use of capitalisation – e.g. pp. 67, pp. 76, pp. 379 capitals after a colon. 

• Bibliography format – this needs to be better spaced and second lines indented, and needs to follow a single referencing system.

References mentioned in report (full bibliographic references are given of further reading mentioned in the report)

On what you might say if you are asking for an expansion to the work done:

Chapter 1

Expand to incorporate a greater breadth of literature – aiming for ~35 pages in total. Part of this will include an expansion of the final section of aims of the research. Provide a more detailed rationale behind formulation of these aims as well as expanding the aims to fully cover the content of the thesis. Add reference to appropriate chapters as necessary.

On what you might require from a student:

The examiners require a revised version of the thesis together with an accompanying document which explains how and where in the thesis the examiners’ concerns are addressed.

On headings you might use:

Strategic deletions
Clarification, development and additional depth of discussion
Enhancement of analysis
Improvement of focus and argumentation