PhD

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? 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 — for instance, in citation practices, evidential standards, or thesis structure — and why? 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? Were there any ethical concerns with your project? How have you addressed them? What counter‐arguments are there to your main argument?

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. ...

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. ...

Your Personal Statement is possibly the most challenging part of a narrative CV. In just 2-3 sentences,1 you need to convey your research identity, your approach, and why you’re the right person for the funding 😳 It’s not a mini-biography or a list of achievements — you’re distilling your overarching research narrative. How on earth do you compress your entire career into a few sentences? In this post, I’ll guide you through the process of clarifying your research identity and crafting a Personal Statement that accurately and authentically represents who you are as an academic researcher. ...