Imagine that you are an examiner. You are reading a doctoral thesis. And you’ve nearly got to the end. You’ve read a lot of carefully crafted words which have explained what the research is and why it is as it is. You’ve read the results and what these mean and how they fit with the current […] … learn more→

The thesis must show and tell your examiner that its writer is ready to be called Dr. Yep. Dr (insert your surname here.) What do I mean by show and tell? Well, even if these are not the usual definitions, in the context of the thesis I mean: showing is when the writer provides carefully selected information for […] … learn more→

As I hit the start of the second year of my PhD, one of my supervisors casually said to me, “Oh, you should probably aim to write your literature review this year.” It is very common for supervisors to suggest the literature review as the first thesis chapter to actually see daylight. And in many […] … learn more→

My Nordic colleagues often say that the thesis has to have a red thread, a line of argument that holds things together. So what’s this red thread? Think of the red thread as a sturdy rope that guides the reader up the rocky mountain that is the thesis, making sure that they don’t fall down a […] … learn more→

Thinking of using images in your thesis? Good idea. And easy to do with everything now being digital. I love an image. I enjoy a photograph. I like a good diagram. I’m happy pouring over a graph or table. But not always. And I’m not alone. Key thesis readers, the examiners, are not always thrilled when […] … learn more→

How does a thesis get written? What do I as a supervisor do to help? How does feedback work best? A set of inter-related questions that keep many of us mildly, or a lot, worried. Well, I have an ‘ideal model’ for feedback on a thesis. I don’t always follow it. Quite often my model […] … learn more→