Graduate Degree Schools: Demystifying the Defense for a Thesis or Diss

By Evelyn Funda

Often students anticipate their thesis and dissertation defense with fear, but let me

reassure you that in nearly 50 defenses where I have participated either as a chair or a committee member, all but one of those meetings successfully resulted in the granting of the degree and hearty congratulations for the student (more about that one unfortunate case in a moment). So some things to know about the process:

1. You shouldn’t have to be on the defensive during your defense.

We’ve all heard the “firing squad” jokes, but your death—intellectually or otherwise—is not immanent. In fact, the defense can and should be an enjoyable, stimulating conversation—a true dialogue. When I defended my master’s thesis on one of Willa Cather’s lesser known novels, one of my committee members started the proceedings by saying, “We all know that Evelyn knows more about The Song of the Lark than any one else in this room, so let’s proceed from that premise.” That statement went miles to putting my mind at ease, and it set the tone that this was to be an intellectual exchange among colleagues, which brings me to the next point.

2. Be prepared to learn “the secret handshake.”

There is no secret handshake, of course, but this event is an initiation, of sorts, into a distinguished club. If you do well in the defense, it should mark your transformation from student to “colleague.” And you need to honor that tradition by acting like an equal. That is,

· Be articulate,

· Be engaging,

· Be professional in dress, manner, and preparation.

3. Set yourself up for a happy defense early on by first choosing your chair and committee members with care.

Upfront decisions are crucial, and the choice of your committee members is one of the most important decisions you’ll make during a program. Typically, you find your chair first. Know that you’ll probably work more closely with him/her than you ever have any other faculty member in your entire education. Depending on the departmental structure, a student may only see his/her entire committee a few times (in our department, that is typically at proposal stage and then again at defense), but the committee chair will become a regular part of your life —so choose accordingly. That said, a good working relationship with your entire supervisory committee is also vital, so pick people you trust and respect. Of course, that will be determined in part by the topic you choose—for instance, if you come to USU to study Willa Cather and I’m not asked to be a member of your committee, well… that’s a problem that can have serious repercussions on department support, letters of recommendation after you graduate, etc. (For instance, colleagues on the department awards committee or perhaps at an institution where you apply for a PhD or a job will be suspicious of why there is no letter of support from me). Be aware that a good working relationship among the committee members is important. Sometimes different members just never seem to be on the same page, either in approach or temperament, or perhaps intra‐department tensions that predate you or have nothing to do with your project may exist. While it’s rare that such things will affect your committee, it can mean that a committee doesn’t run as smoothly as it could. The point is, as you make committee decisions, listen carefully to the advice of your chair. He/she will suggest professors who have expertise in your area and also work well together. You may also ask around among other graduate students who have gone or are going through the process! Then gauge whether potential members will work for you by asking:

· Do they seem to strike a good balance between challenging & mentoring their students?

· Will they take time with you?

· Do they seem personally invested in your success?

· Or do they seem “territorial” about their own work?

4. Hold up your end of the bargain.

Realize that in most programs professors get no credit or compensation for being on your committee. They are there because they are professionals, sod likewise. That means:

· commit to writing a good, engaging, insightful thesis or dissertation,

· be willing to take direction from your chair and committee,

· submit drafts that are free of basic editing errors that will only tend to annoy readers.

The failed defense I referred to earlier was a case of someone who couldn’t do these things and kept turning in a thesis‐less thesis fraught with both editing and conceptual problems.

After months of gently working with her, her committee chair despaired that she would

ever take direction and called upon the committee to evaluate drafts of chapters, in the hopes that the student would “get it” when she heard the same critiques from her entire committee. But even then, the student didn’t seem able to make the kinds of revisions required for a defensible thesis. Finally, we agreed that our only alternative was to take it to defense and see if she could do orally in that meeting what she hadn’t been able yet to do in writing. At best, we hoped our point‐by‐point prompting would cause a break‐through. At worst, we thought the defense would be a wakeup call that might prompt her to consider going into another field. Sadly, the worst was what happened, and we had no choice but to fail her. Yes, she cried—so did we—but now, years later, she is happily employed in an entirely different line of work. Remember, however, this was one case out of almost fifty committees that I’ve served on in fourteen years, and such cases are rare.

5. Get to know your institution’s procedural norms.

Every school has slightly different practices. For instance, in our department, we have an understanding that, except for unique cases like the one I just mentioned, a defense is only

scheduled when the chair determines that we have at least have a defensible thesis and a reasonable expectation that the student will pass. However, the first thing we do in a defense meeting is greet the student and then promptly send them out of the room where they may have to linger in the hallway for 10‐15 minutes. During this time, which is the first opportunity the entire committee has met together since reading the thesis, we discuss how to proceed: who will ask which questions and in what order. But imagine what a student who doesn’t know those things might think while they’re cooling their heels out by the water fountain! You might think you’re sunk before you start. Also at our school (although this is not the case everywhere), the defense is considered an “open” meeting, and except for this initial procedural period and then the final vote at the end, anyone can come and observe. We’ve had students bring their spouses, parents, teenage children, and we’ve had other grad students attend who want to get a feel for the process.

However, very few students are aware of this open policy. Instead, what students have often heard is the department folklore that they are supposed to bring food to their defense—it’s not true at all, and yet more than once I’ve seen students spend their morning buying bagels instead of rereading their thesis (see #7 below). The best thing to do, then, is make a pre‐defense appointment with your chair to talk about what you can expect during this meeting.

6. Practice talking about your thesis or dissertation beforehand.

In the early stages of writing, I suggest that students learn the art of “cocktail party talk” or what the news media calls the “sound bite.” That is, how do you answer the person at a conference who has just asked you “So, what are you working on?” Learn to distill the scope of your work into a concise, cogent, and convincing answer that lays out what contributions you feel you are making to the field. It’s a transferable skill, and in a defense, this kind of question is often one of the first you’ll be asked. There are also other general, all-purpose questions that often get asked. For instance, our faculty often pose someform of the following:

· Talk to us about your process and how you arrived at this argument.

· What was your greatest challenge or difficulty along the way & how did you overcome it?

· Tell me about some epiphany you had along the way and how you arrived at that.

· Tell me how you arrived at your important conclusion about X here on page Y.

· Can you give an example of how this work has affected or will affect your teaching? (This kind of question is based on the important premise in higher education that

· research and teaching are interrelated activities.)

· What plans do you have for the thesis/dissertation now; do you plan to publish some part of it, in what journal, and with what kind of additional preparation? Do you think this will become a book, and if so, why? (Committees ask this because they want to see that you are thinking of the thesis or dissertation’s afterlife, that you see writing it as a step in a career, rather than just a hoop you’re willing to jump but then be done with in order to get a degree).

7. Familiarize yourself with your own thesis before the meeting.

Strange as it sounds, remember that it may have been a while since you’ve reread some of your work. Committees usually require that a completed thesis or dissertation be given to the committee weeks in advance of the meeting (times vary, so find out). Moreover, in the case of a multi‐chaptered dissertation, it might have been months or even years since you

last read a chapter you wrote early on. So in the day or two before the meeting, as you reread your work…

· Consider how your argument hangs together as a whole.

· Underline important conclusions you drew or put sticky notes on key quotes.

· Identify passages that you are especially proud of, where you offered new insight into

· something, for instance, and prepare to talk about them.

· Think about how you might steer your answers to questions so you can talk about these things.

8. Remember that committee members are on your side, even when it doesn’t

seem like they are on your side.

By the time of defense, committee members have invested time in you and should want you to succeed. That doesn’t mean that they aren’t going to push you with questions that point out weaknesses or dispute or challenge your conclusions. Instead of raising the white flag,

remember that

· They are trying to be useful, not critical, in helping you refine your work.

· They may be preparing you to face “real world” tests, i.e., when you submit work to a journal and experts in your field review it. Challenging questions ARE NOT a matter of committee members

· gleefully pointing to deficiencies,

· justifying their existence on your committee,

· or showing you how much smarter they are than you. You don’t want a “rubber stamp”

committee member, who is going to say— just like that classmate in the peer revision group in freshman comp class— “Yeah, great. I like it. Wouldn’t change a thing.” How helpful or useful is that kind of feedback? How much did you respect that fellow writer, especially if you got a B instead of the A you were hoping for?

9. So… don’t be derailed by the tough questions:

· Answer them calmly,

· Revise your ideas orally if it seems the challenge has merits,

· Or stick to your guns and expand on why you’ve come to that conclusion. (Sometimes those kinds of questions simply mean the committee member wants you to expand on an idea.)

10. Know that “It’ll be over before you know it,” but “It ain’t over till it’s over.”

Although the amount of time given to a defense varies depending on the degree awarded and the school, that meeting is going to fly by, especially if you have done all of the previous things I’ve mentioned. However, while the meeting may end with handshakes, congratulations, and a P‐A‐S‐S written in bold letters on your paperwork, the defense may not be your final step in the process. In our department, it is extremely rare for the committee not to call for some level of revisions at the defense stage. Even the best students may be asked to:

· rewrite a conclusion,

· consider additional sources for

their theoretical framework,

· or further clarify terms and essential principles. Questions during the defense often

· foreshadow requests to revise some portion of the thesis. And that can be a real sign of respect for the validity of your ideas. How this is handled varies— revisions may take a week or a few months, and committees may want to see revisions or put the committee chair entirely in charge of seeing that they get done. Just be sure to follow through—it’s sad but true that I know of at least one case where a student was so stunned by what he perceived as a tough defense that he never completed his revisions.

Top 10 Reasons To Go To Graduate School

10. You want to use up the money left on your copy card.

9. You’ve gotten used to being poor, and you’re starting to like it.

8. You like studying subjects so specific that there are only five other people in the world

to discuss them with.

7. Two words: Real World.

6. All the number 2 pencils you could want!

5. Because it’s more fun to dish out grades as a Graduate Instructor than it is to get them.

4. You can’t spell “philodendron” without a PhD.

3. So when all of your friends go out and get jobs and have real lives and money, you can

say, “Yes, but do you have a subscription to The Chronicle of Higher Education?

2. The GRE is just more chance to take a standardized test!