Defense! What an awful word! Doesn’t it make you feel like you are at war? We won’t lie to you, preparing for your defense and defending your paper is no piece of cake, but following our precious tips will smooth things down for you.
So here we go!
Before the defense:
- Obviously, the main key to successful defense is building confidence on your knowledge about your subject matter. It won’t be hard, providing you are the author of your thesis/dissertation. If you wasn’t the one, who wrote the paper, you need to make sure you have a good understanding of the keynotes and are able to explain them using your own words.
- Preparing a speech. You need to do that very carefully and with a sufficient amount of time at your disposal. Don’t forget to stress paper strengths and try to foresee in advance tricky questions from your thesis/dissertation committee. One question you should certainly anticipate is, “What do you plan to do with the thesis, beyond graduate school?”
- Talk to someone who has already defended their thesis/dissertation. Hearing the life stories will give you the real picture of what might be going on at your defense. If possible, attend the defense of others, it will grant you the opportunity to observe interactions between students and committee members.
- Practice makes perfect! Make a little presentation for your friends or family, make them act as committee members to practice as realistically as possible.
- Bringing visual aids or extracts from your thesis (charts, drawings, tables) will add you some points and help you while elaborating responses to questions.
Do no overdress or underdress, and never take any unnecessary medications, just try to get enough sleep and you will do just fine. And remember, no one is interested in making you fail your defense, the committee just want to see your ability to present your point of view, which should make sense and be supported by evidence.
During the defence:
- Decency. We sure you already know all the academic protocol on how to greet committee members, to answer questions and how to finish your presentation. Don’t forget about all that no matter how nervous you are.
- Speak up! Do not hurry, yet do not draw out to a great length. Do not speak monotonous, place accents and change intonation to make your speech vivid.
- Answering questions. In regard to that - be sure to focus and listen to them carefully. Do not give hasty responses, take a moment to think your answers through. If you don’t know what to say, do not panic, reply that the question is interesting and you will consider it in the future.
- Always keep visual contact to be aware of the comprehending situation. It’s really important to make people feel you are talking to them, not just mumbling some learnt text.
The truth is that in most cases only your thesis advisor reads your paper. So, what impression you make on the committee with your defense speech will influence your grade hugely.
We wish you a lot of luck and a good grade. Don’t forget to share with us how it went!:)
Sincerely,
The DissertationLab Team
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