You have passed your PhD viva! Well done! All you have to do now is make a few corrections based on your examiners’ feedback. But how should you approach this? Our five tips for handling your thesis revisions include:
For more on all the above, read on below.
When you have it, read through the examiners’ report a couple of times. And try not to freak out! We know it can feel like some unthinking monster is tearing your precious thesis apart. But critique is part of academic life. And all the feedback in the report should help you make your thesis stronger.
So instead of worrying about any criticism, make some initial notes about the changes the examiners want you to make. This will give you a sense of the work required and the strengths and weaknesses of your thesis.
Once you’ve read the examiners’ feedback, it’s time to… take a break.
Try to forget about the examiners’ report for a day or two. Instead, do something that you haven’t had time to do while working on your thesis. Or just get some well-deserved rest. The break will allow you to return to your thesis feeling refreshed and better equipped to make the final corrections.
Before setting to work on your revisions, you’ll need to plan the changes you will make. And the first step in this process is re-reading your thesis, paying close attention to the passages your examiners highlighted.
You’ll then have a clearer sense of how your argument works as a whole, and how the revisions will fit within the overall thesis.
Next, create a ‘roadmap’ for your revisions by creating a four-column spreadsheet or table and fill in the columns as follows:
You can see an example of a table with revisions below.
Location
Suggested Revision
Revision Notes
Type
p. 12–14
The literature review has missed an important article (see Jones et al., 2017, Journal of Paranormal Investigations, vol 10, no. 1).
Check this. Already discussed a 2019 journal article by Jones.
Major revision
p. 41
Further discussion is required on the meaning of ‘suspicious behaviour’.
Find sources for definition of ‘suspicious behaviour’ in section 3.4.
p. 68
The axes in Figure 5.1 have not been correctly labelled.
Minor revision
p. 112
Incomplete references for Danielson (2014) and Esquith et al. (1998).
Check sources and correct references.
In addition, while you might spot other areas of your work you could polish while planning the corrections, focus first on what the examiners have asked you to do. You don’t want to create too much extra work for yourself!
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Depending on your university, you may be asked to submit a report or cover letter with your thesis revisions. Typically, this is where you should summarise the changes you made and explain why you made them.
In most cases, this should simply involve working your way through each of the examiners’ suggestions and stating how your revisions have addressed them. You can even use your roadmap of corrections as the basis for this.
But what if you disagree with one of the examiners’ suggestions? In this case, while you are not obliged to make the change, you will need to justify your decision. To do this, give a polite, detailed argument, referring to both your own thesis and the wider literature as required.
Remember, though, that examiners don’t suggest changes without reason! Thus, even if you disagree with their comments, you may want to make revisions to clarify whichever part of your argument they misunderstood.
Before you submit your revisions, make sure to proofread them. You don’t want to introduce new typos if you’ve already taken the time to make sure the original thesis was error free. And if you would like any extra help checking for typos, or any other aspect of your revisions, our professional proofreading service is available whenever you need it.
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