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Friday, December 07, 2007 9:48 AM

The reflective examiner

I love it when an examiner talks about "the PhD" in general, rather than simply the particulars of the one under consideration. When this happens, we get an insight into what examiners are looking for. Usually, such reflection occurs when the examiner
Posted by robyn.owens | 0 Comments
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Tuesday, November 06, 2007 12:27 PM

Justifying your thesis

I know it is hard enough actually stating what your thesis is, but once you have articulated it, you then have to be able to convince the world that it is important enough to be worthy of 3 years' consideration, and that what you have found is a substantial
Posted by robyn.owens | 1 Comments
Tuesday, July 31, 2007 11:13 AM

The Thesis

I have recently been examining a PhD thesis of a student from another university (in another country). Overall, it was, in my opinion, an adequate dissertation: the candidate had clearly done a lot of work, there were some original contributions (although
Posted by robyn.owens | 7 Comments
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Tuesday, March 13, 2007 11:09 AM

What should I call myself?

A pressing issue that often arises at the time of write-up is what to call yourself. Should you use "I", "we" "one" or try to hide behind a passive voice? Here are some examples: "I showed in an earlier paper [Bloggs, 2005] that ..." "We showed in an
Posted by robyn.owens | 4 Comments
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Saturday, February 03, 2007 1:49 PM

Don't torture your examiners

It's worth taking a moment to imagine the conditions under which your examiners are likely to read your thesis. If my experience is anything to go by, it won't be in their office. Recently, most of my assessment reading has happened at home or in my car
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Friday, December 15, 2006 10:43 AM

That concluding chapter

I remember reading somewhere that the Conclusion shouldn't mark the point where you have run out of energy. A recent examiner's report made the same sort of comment: "My second major criticism is that chapter 8, 'Conclusions', is far too brief (3.25 pages)
Posted by robyn.owens | 1 Comments
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