Academic

Here are some potential viva questions to use in your practice sessions. You’ll need to adapt them to fit your specific research. Make sure you vary the questions and don’t just rehearse the same answers. Ideally, get other people to ask you questions. It’s important to get used to thinking on the spot. General or opening What is your thesis about? Why did you choose this research question? What were your major findings or conclusions? Why is your research important? What did you enjoy most about your project? More specific What are the key strengths of your thesis? What are the major achievements? What would you identify as your major contribution to knowledge? What do you see as the most original element of your thesis, and why? Can you summarise your key findings in a few sentences? Structure/methodology What was your methodology and why was this appropriate? Does your overall argument make sense and how does it address your research questions? What assumptions have you made, and have they worked? Were there any surprises in the course of your research? How has your thinking developed or changed throughout this research? How did you establish the limits or scope of your study? Explain the structure of your project and your thesis. Research context How does your thesis relate to the wider field? How does your thesis relate to your discipline? What has happened in your research field since you submitted your thesis? If you have adapted an established methodology, why were those changes necessary? What are the implications of your research for the wider field? How would you continue your research? Literature review Summarise an influential concept or thinker and explain why this was so significant for your work. Explain why certain literature is missing from your review. Comment on how you selected your key literature. What decisions did you have to make? Limitations/weaknesses What would you do differently, and why? What are the potential weaknesses of your project? Could you have interpreted your results in a different way? Were there any issues around your selection and collection of data? Was there any other material you wanted to use but couldn’t or didn’t? What are the limitations of this study? How could you address them? What were the ethical concerns with your project? How have you addressed them? What counter‐arguments are there to your main argument? Interdisciplinary How do you position your thesis in relation to the disciplines it draws on — do you see it as primarily belonging to one field, or as genuinely sitting between them? Where the disciplines you engaged with offered conflicting methods, frameworks, or assumptions, how did you navigate or resolve those tensions? How did you handle differences in terminology or key concepts across disciplines — particularly where the same term carries different meanings in different fields? Which scholarly communities would benefit most from your research, and how would you communicate your findings to each? What disciplinary conventions did you follow in presenting your work and why? Professional Doctorate How would you explain the key findings of your research to a practitioner audience? What practical implications do your findings have for policy or practice in your field? How did you navigate ethical considerations specific to researching within your professional context? In what ways has your research changed your own professional practice? How would you implement your findings in a professional setting, and what barriers might you anticipate? What future research directions emerge from your work that would be valuable to professionals in your field? Practice-based Doctorate What methodological challenges did you encounter in integrating theory with practice? How does your work contribute to both your artistic/professional field and academic discourse? How did your practice evolve in response to your research findings? In what ways does your practice challenge or extend existing paradigms in your field? How would you position your work in relation to other practitioners in your discipline? What ethical considerations arose during your practice-based research? How did you navigate the balance between artistic/professional innovation and academic rigour? What unexpected insights emerged from the interplay between theory and practice? Thesis by Papers How do the papers in your thesis form a coherent body of work, rather than a collection of separate studies? Some of your papers were co-authored. How would you characterise your individual contribution to each? Where the papers were written at different stages of your doctorate, how has your thinking developed across them? Are there tensions or contradictions between the papers, and if so, how do you account for them? What does your integrative chapter add that the papers themselves do not? If you were to write an additional paper to strengthen the thesis, what would it address and why? How do you see these papers contributing to the field beyond the doctorate — for example, in terms of future research directions or practical applications?

Here are the resources for my workshop on Preparing for Your Viva. Books 📚 How to Survive Your Viva by Rowena Murray Websites 🕸️ “I Will Survive (The Viva)” - three-part blog series 13 Steps I took to prepare for my PhD viva Viva Survivors In these resources, you’ll notice references to “surviving” the viva. Everyone survives the viva - there have been no reported fatalities. Resources 🧭 Potential Viva Questions Choosing Your PhD Examiner Preparing for an Online Viva

Although you can’t necessarily choose your PhD examiner, you’re allowed to suggest someone. And this is a power you should use wisely. Your university isn’t obliged to accept your recommendation, but they should at least consider it and take reasonable steps see whether that person is both appropriate and available. You typically don’t have much say in the selection of the internal examiner. This is whoever is available in your School who hasn’t had significant involvement in your PhD so far. ...

Here are the resources for my workshop on Planning Your Journal Article. Books 📚 Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks by Wendy Belcher Writing for Social Scientists by Howard S. Becker Writing Science by Joshua Schimel Stylish Academic Writing by Helen Sword Resources 🧭 Using the OCAR Structure for Academic Writing Time Tracking for Researchers: Improve Your Project Management with Data-Driven Planning Improve Your Flow with Reverse Outlining Apps 💻 Sequential Elimination for Journal Articles (experimental!)

Here are the further resources for my workshop on Getting Writing Done. Books 📚 Detox Your Writing: Strategies for Doctoral Researchers by Pat Thomson & Barbara Kamler Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks by Wendy Belcher Writing for Social Scientists by Howard S. Becker Stylish Academic Writing by Helen Sword Writing Science by Joshua Schimel Worksheets 📝 Writing Audit - Template for tracking the writing stage. Accountability 👀 Focusmate Write or Else Written? Kitten? Resources 🧭 Using the OCAR Structure for Academic Writing How to Use Zotero with Scrivener Time Tracking for Researchers: Improve Your Project Management with Data-Driven Planning Improve Your Flow with Reverse Outlining To Write More, You Need Less Time How to Defeat Your Inner Critic and Keep Writing Overcoming Procrastination and Staying Motivated: Three Strategies for Getting on with your Writing Overcoming Page Fright: Three Techniques for Planning a Piece of Academic Writing How to Become a Healthy Academic Writer

Here are the resources for my workshop on Turning Your Thesis into a Monograph. 🎤 You can also hear me talking about publishing your thesis on the PhD Life Raft podcast. Books 📚 How to Publish Your PhD by Catherine Pope Thinking Like Your Editor – How to Write Serious Nonfiction & Get it Published by Susan Rabiner & Alfred Fortunato - not specifically for academics, but useful for considering your project from the publisher’s perspective. Writing Science by Joshua Schimel - despite the title, the excellent advice applies to writers in all disciplines and is also applicable to book proposals. Websites 🕸️ Open Access Knowledge Unlatched - repository of OA books. Open Book Publishers - OA publishers Contractual Support Society of Authors – will check contracts Textbook and Academic Authors Association – US-centric, but lots of resources and guidance. Web Presence Reclaim Hosting – affordable hosting for academics. Offers WordPress, Omeka, MediaWiki and more. Knowledge Commons – not-for-profit alternative to Academia.edu. Also offers free WordPress hosting. Omeka – create online exhibitions. Podcasting Pod Academy – directory of research-based podcasts H-Podcast – lots of discussion and podcasts in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Publishing support Bookvault - publish, print, and sell books globally. Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading - directory of qualified editors and proofreaders across many fields. Reedsy – marketplace for finding reputable publishing professionals. Society of Indexers - find a qualified book indexer, or even train to become an indexer! Indexing: A Guide for Academic Authors - comprehensive blog post explaining the process.

Here are the resources for my workshop on Making Progress Your PhD. 🎤 You can also hear me talking about avoiding burnout on the PhD Life Raft podcast. Books 📚 The Literature Review by Diana Ridley The Unwritten Rules of PhD Research by Gordon Rugg & Marian Petre How to Write a Thesis by Rowena Murray Websites 🕸️ The PhD Life Raft - Useful resources for doctoral researchers, including an excellent podcast. The Thesis Whisperer - Hundreds of thoughtful posts on every aspect of being a doctoral researcher. Thinkwell - Planners and templates for managing your PhD. Resources 🧭 How to Map Your Thesis or Book Creating a Minimum Viable Thesis Time Tracking for Researchers Managing Your Energy Budget The Human Function Curve Worksheets 📝 Writing Audit - Template for tracking the writing stage.

This is a fictitious narrative CV created to demonstrate the OCAR structure in response to an equally fictitious funding call. It’s designed to help you understand how the R4RI format works, not to provide a template to copy. Any resemblance to real research is coincidental. Use this example for understanding the approach, then make it your own. Click the arrows for commentary on how the OCAR framework was applied in each section. ...

Team funding applications require a different approach to narrative CVs. Rather than showcasing individual excellence, you need to demonstrate collective strength and complementary expertise. The main challenge is that you’re doing this within the same word limits as an individual CV 😲 This post covers what changes (and what stays the same) when writing team narrative CVs, and provides a practical process for developing them collaboratively. What do team and individual narrative CVs have in common? The four R4RI modules - your team still needs to address all four areas of contribution. The OCAR structure remains effective - it works at the same three nested levels (Team Statement, module narratives, individual examples). Word limits - funders don’t give you extra words for having more people (typically still a total of 1,500-2,000 words). Need for specifics - you still need concrete examples with numbers, outcomes, and impact. What’s different about team narrative CVs? The focus shifts from individual to collective. It’s not about showing that everyone is excellent; it’s showing how this specific team offers the right combination of expertise to deliver the proposed project. You need to demonstrate complementarity. Why does this specific combination of people create something greater than individuals working separately? A Team Statement replaces the Personal Statement. This opening needs to convey collective identity. Above all, you’re answering the question: “Why is this the right team for this project?”, not “Why are these good researchers?” Funders need to understand each team member’s specific contribution and expertise, and also get a sense that you can all work together successfully to deliver the project within the timeframe. ...

Unlike a traditional CV where you list achievements with bullet points, a narrative CV requires you to write in paragraphs. This means the quality of your writing is crucial. With strict word limits (typically 1,000-2,000 words for the entire CV), every single word must earn its place. Poor word choices, vague language, or passive constructions waste precious space and weaken your impact. You’ve learned the OCAR structure, gathered your examples across the four modules, and understood how to build narratives at multiple levels. Now it’s time to refine the language to make your narratives powerful and clear. Here are 5 stages for you to work through. ...