Do you need dissertation or PhD thesis help with things surrounding your committees, defense or Vita, or publishing? These are the Doctoral EndGames and this set of slides was produced for DoctoralNet's first public hangout on 15 Sept 2013

1. Thank You for
Coming
We will start in just a moment
Committees, Defense, Vita
and Publishing:
The End Games

2. Committees, Defense, Vita and
publishing: The end games
1. Care and feeding of
committees
2. Prep for
defense/Vita
3. Publishing – the
proposal & as
articles

3. Committees
Time to Vote:
1. Did you get to pick yours? If so what were
the criteria you used?
2. How is it going? Are you meeting with just
your supervisor or with the full committee?
3. If you have gone through proposal hearing
were there any surprises there for you?
4. Looking towards the endgame – what are
your plans?

4. Getting Ready for a Live Defense
• The Defense From the
Professor’s Point of View
• Set Yourself up for
Success
• Building on a Solid
Foundation
• The Two Approaches to
Reading a Dissertation or
Thesis
• Comments and Revisions
Figure 9.1 During defense the
professor’s role changes from
helper to guardian of the
university’s reputation.
Source:
Jupiterimages/BananaStock/Thinkstock

5. Care and feeding of committees
1. Depends on the
relationship but
generally the
more prep you
do – the stronger
your piece of
writing the
better it goes
2. Never be
defensive
3. Always ask
questions – don’t
let the aura of
distortion get
you

6. Prep for defense/Vita
Absolutely!
1. Invest in
proofreading
2. Invest time in prep
for the presentation
– don’t go over 15
minutes
3. Mock Defense is
great if you can
afford it
4. Manage your
expectations

7. More on defense/Vita
Don’t!
Get blinded by the light at the end of the tunnel
- You aren’t out yet

9. Purposes of the Final Defense
• Your purpose is to pass and have a title
conferred upon you
• Professors protect integrity of the university
• Final defense is NOT a presentation of your
research in chronological or even written
order
• It IS an argument or case related to a
specified issue as developed through your
research study.
Figure 14.1 You and your university share the goal of your
graduation, but your university also is concerned with
protecting the integrity of the degrees it confers.
Source: Ryan
McVay/Photodisc/Thinkstock

10. What to Expect During a Final Defense
• Final dissertation defense (also called:
dissertation hearing, orals, vitas etc.)
– Online university
• Asynchronous defense (online
conversations precede a synchronous
online event)
– Traditional university
• Meet in person, standing before a panel of
‘judges’
• Give a presentation
• Face difficult questions Figure 14.2 Be prepared to face very
tough questions during your final
defense. Source: Stockbyte/Stockbyte/Thinkstock

11. Outcomes of defense
• Pass with no revisions (almost never
happens)
• Pass but with some level of substantive
changes required
• Do not pass and are required to take
another year or more to further
investigate your study

12. Preparations for Defense
• Defending Your Claims - be prepared to answer questions like:
– What is the purpose of your study as it is presented? Is your problem
empirically verifiable? How have you have you delimited your scope?
– What are the assumptions of your study? Are they accepted in your
field and to what extent?
– What scales operationalize your variables? How do you know that
they are valid?
– What are your findings in terms of effect size? (Garson, 2002)
• Include limitations of your study – truth in advertising
• Make sure your golden threads are present and clear (logical
progression throughout your document)

13. If You Don’t Pass Your Defense
• Go back to our previous
chapters and really read
every discussion about how
to form your claims,
warrants, and arguments.
• Reanalyze your work from
the very beginning.
• Get outside help. Figure 14.4 If you don’t pass your final defense
it may be a good time to get some help from
outside of your university.
Source: ©iStockphoto.com/Palto

14. After You Pass Your Defense
• Publishing – an
ethical responsibility
– Copyright issues
– Academic journals
– Self publishing
– Online options
• Conferences Figure 14.5 There are many online options for
getting your work out there, including blogs
and social media. Source: ©iStockphoto.com/atakan

15. Final Defense Tips: Do…
• Consider searching out a “mock defense” service that gives you a full practice
in front of professors and doctors from a variety of backgrounds.
• Anticipate all the questions that may be asked of you.
• Come early to the room for a live defense to set up and get comfortable.
• See what the protocol is for inviting guests, but consider having others there to
witness and offer moral support.
• Think beforehand what two to three “takeaways” are the most important in
your study.
• Practice your presentation in front of an audience until you are completely
comfortable both with the presentation and with answering questions.
• Remember that you can exert some guidance to the way the conversation is
going.

16. Final Defense Tips: Don’t…
• Allow nervousness or adrenaline
responses to cut off your ability to breath.
• Give long-winded answers.
• Be afraid to say that you have not
thought about that question, could see
how it would be relevant, but would like
to come back to that person after doing a
little bit more research.
• Try to come up with answers about which
you have little knowledge.
• Stray from being 100% authentic.
Figure 14.7 Try not to give long rambling
answers; You can always follow up if something
wasn’t understood. Source: ©iStockphoto.com/id-work

17. Publishing
the proposal & as articles
1. First your thesis or
dissertation
2. Rules and where
generally set up for
you by university
3. Read the contract if
there is one – know
your rights
4. If you own it (an you
probably do) then you
might consider self
publishing as well.

18. Publishing
the proposal & as articles
1. Spin your ideas
2. Many findings? Each
one a journal article
3. Some in journals
dedicated to the
topic / others the
methodology
4. Share at conferences
– have papers
5. Scribd – etc
6. Research Gate

19. Why Publish?
Why do all this extra work?
1. Get your findings into
your field – make
them available to
others who can use
them
2. Launch you own
personal platform
3. Build your career
4. Not easy – mini
defense reviews all
over again

20. Peer Review
Work in the Academic World?
Got to LOVE It!
1. It’s the basis of
our world
2. It makes our
work better
3. It gets easier
as we get
better
4. True test of
where we are

21. Self Marketing, Writing Constantly,
Get Used to It
It’s the way of the future

22. Upcoming News/Events
Monthly Content in Control
Panel for Paying Members
Upcoming Conferences:
March 24th: Data Collecting and analysis: What differentiates the typical
from the outstanding?
March 31st: The golden thread: Typing your research methodology
together as you write
April 7th: What happens when we look at the same thing from multiple
levels of analysis and/or multiple perspectives
April 14th – NO Conference
April 21st – Overview of what goes where in the typical 5 chapter
dissertation or thesis