Finishing and Producing
your Ph.D. Thesis
Anthony Bale (English and
Humanities) & Caroline Goodson
(History, Classics & Archaeology)
Birkbeck College
18 November 2010
Finishing the Thesis
1.When to stop researching?
2.When to stop writing--and start
editing?
3.How to edit efficiently?
4.Submission: how, where, what,
when
5.The Viva
18 November 2010
Finishing the Thesis
In general,
• Arts/Humanities theses are written
chapter by chapter throughout the PhD
programme
• Scientific theses are written once the
data have been collected at the end of
the PhD programme
• (Archaeology theses are a mix between
these two, depending on the dataset)
18 November 2010
Finishing the Thesis
When to finish researching and data
collection?
• when you are no longer surprised by findings
• when you find yourself bored by the subject
because you know, or can anticipate, your findings or
other people’s research
When to finish writing?
•when there is a clear progression of the argument
through the text
•TIP: look at the paragraphs of a chapter and write a
sentence summarising what each paragraph does or
says. Looking at the sequence will make clear where
you need more and where you can cut.
18 November 2010
Finishing the Thesis
At least four months before you
intend to submit, you should:
•
Download the relevant forms from
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck/services/forms
•
Complete the following and return to BBK Registry,
attention of Miss Carla Bull, Research Student Unit (for
Arts and SSHIP)
1. Entry form, signed by you and your supervisor. This
includes the permission to reproduce the thesis and the
certification that you have received and read a copy of
the regulations.
2. Address Label, with a permanent address
Your advisor must nominate examiners, and these must be
approved. S/he must submit the form to Registry. It is your
advisor’s choice who is nominated, though you may
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Finishing the Thesis
contribute
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck/services/forms
18 November 2010
Finishing the Thesis
When you eventually submit the
thesis, you must include these forms:
1. Declaration of Number of Words for Mphil and PhD
Thesis
2. Abstract of Thesis - this is official, and will be widely
available to researchers, so make certain there are no
errors!
3. 2 copies of the thesis for the readers, these can be softbound, in blue binding, with the name of the student on
the spine in gold letters, according to regulations. The
student must bring a copy for him-/herself during the
examination, though this need not be bound.
18 November 2010
Finishing the Thesis
How to edit efficiently?
•Use a spell checker and use a grammar checker. Do not accept
their changes blindly but review each sentence.
•Use a Style Sheet. The College does not specify one for use in
PhD thesis, because it is important that you modify the
formatting to reflect conventions in your field. You may develop a
style sheet yourself, adopt one from an important journal in your
field of research, or use a widely recognised format, such as the
MHRA Style Guide (strongly recommended for English theses),
the Chicago Manual, or the MLA.
•BE CONSISTENT. If you decide half-way through to change ca.
to circa, use Find and Replace to correct ca. in the entire text at
that time.
18 November 2010
Finishing the Thesis
•When editing, divide your tasks and focus on one thing at a
time. For example, read a chapter or the thesis first for
punctuation, checking commas, full stops, single or double
quotes and apostrophes.
Then read again for consistent spelling.
Then read again for citations and abbreviations.
Then read again to check the footnotes.
•TIP: Read assuming there are errors and find them. Read
the text aloud or backwards (especially helpful for spelling
errors).
18 November 2010
Finishing the Thesis
Final stages of producing the text
and editing before submission
•Front matter
•Abstract
•Acknowledgements
•Table of Contents
•Chapters
•References
•Appendices
•Printing
•Binding
18 November 2010
Finishing the Thesis
Front Matter
• Title page (numbered page 1)
Officially approved thesis title, that which is on
the forms that you submitted months before.
Candidate’s full name
Birkbeck College, University of London
Degree for which thesis is submitted and
month/year of submission
It is assumed that submission of the thesis implies it
is entirely your own work and not plagiarised.
18 November 2010
Finishing the Thesis
1
Intracellular Signalling and Phagocytosis
by Haemocytes of Manduca sexta Larvae
Maria Patricia de Winter
Department of Biological and Chemical Sciences
Birkbeck College, University of London
Submitted for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy, November 2004
18 November 2010
Finishing the Thesis
Abstract of Thesis
• Follows the Title Page
• 300 words maximum
• Summarises context, methods, results
and conclusions contained in the thesis
• A duplicate Abstract must be submitted
to the registry with the thesis
• Published in ASLIB Index of Theses
18 November 2010
Finishing the Thesis
Acknowledgements
• Optional, but most people include them
(in the final submission) and
acknowledge those who supported and
helped them throughout their Ph.D.,
including libraries, repositories, and
archives.
• If you include these, do keep
acknowledgements to one side of A4.
18 November 2010
Finishing the Thesis
Table of Contents
• Follows Abstract, or Acknowledgements
where included
• Must include all headings and subheadings
and their page numbers
• Includes a list of Figures or Tables
• MS Word can create a TOC for you if you
merge all your chapters into one document or
you can generate your own (make a twocolumn table without borders)
18 November 2010
Finishing the Thesis
Chapters
• Each chapter must be numbered
sequentially, and the pagination must be
continuous from 1 onwards. Use Arabic
numerals (ie 1, 2, 3).
• You may chose to number your footnotes
sequentially or restart at each chapter.
18 November 2010
Finishing the Thesis
References
• Use a reference system that is
recognised by your discipline.
• Examiners are fond of checking for
missing references so check that each
of the items in your footnotes appears
on your final bibliography (nb this takes
hours!).
18 November 2010
Finishing the Thesis
Appendices
• Include extra material that does not need to
be in the body of the thesis. These might be
tables, transcriptions of documents, texts in
original language or editions of texts, or other
information relevant to the thesis but not
included in full in the body of the text.
18 November 2010
Finishing the Thesis
Production time
• Allow at least a WEEK to assemble,
check, print and correct last-minute
errors that you have missed.
18 November 2010
Finishing the Thesis
Word limit
• 100,000 words including footnotes and
tables, but not including appendices.
• It is possible, under extenuating
circumstances, to apply for an extension to
this limit but this application must by
approved by your examiners, and the
College, before you submit the thesis. There
must be a very serious reason for which you
need this extension, such as your
examiners’ requiring the addition of a new
chapter as part of the major revisions to the
18 November 2010
Finishing the Thesis
thesis.
Birkbeck does NOT stipulate
the following:
-the font type or size to use
(best to use a serifed font (such as Times) for
body text and a sans serif font (such as Arial)
for figures such as graphs)
-reference formats or bibliography formats.
-American or British English spelling or
conventions.
-specific chapter or thesis formats
18 November 2010
Finishing the Thesis
Birkbeck DOES stipulate the
following formatting points:
-theses must be typed or printed on good
quality A4 paper and on one side only
-line spacing should be double or one-and-half,
except for for indented quotations or
footnotes where single spacing may be used.
-the binding edge margin must be at least 40
mm and other margins at least 20 mm
-photographs etc. must be permanently
mounted and bound in with the theses
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Finishing the Thesis
-the use of sellotape or similar is prohibited
-errors must be corrected before final submission
-all pages must be numbered, including any
bound in material
-the thesis must include a title page, an abstract,
a table of contents and a list of tables and
figures
-collaborative work must acknowledged and
certified by supervisor.
The examination copies, and the final submission
copies, MUST be bound according to
regulations
18 November 2010
Finishing the Thesis
Printing
• Allow at least TWO days just to print and
check your thesis - it really does take this
long.
• Print a draft copy first and check for errors
before printing final copies - get a friend or
partner or parent to proof-read the thesis to
check for typos that you will not be able to
see.
• Having a professional printer print the final
copy has much to recommend it, though it
can cost over £20 per copy, not including
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Finishing the Thesis
binding.
• Check each thesis copy to ensure that all the
pages are numbered sequentially
• Birkbeck initially requires two copies, either
two soft-bound or one soft and one hardbound
• Make an extra copy for yourself, which you
should take with you to the viva, and one for
your advisor if he or she is attending the viva.
• Don’t make any extra copies at this stage there are certain to be corrections to make
• If you submit two soft-bound copies and there
are no correction, you will eventually have to
submit a hard-bound copy after the viva.
18 November 2010
Finishing the Thesis
All theses (whether soft or hard-bound) must
•Be covered in medium blue cloth (e.g. water
resistant material)
•Be lettered in gold up the spine with Degree,
Year, and Surname and Initials in the same form
as the College records, with letters 16 or 18
point (.25 inch) (The date on the copies of the
thesis submitted for examination in November
and December should be that of the following
year).
If the thesis has to be bound in two volumes, the
spine should indicate this clearly, e.g. Vol 1 and
Vol 2.
18 November 2010
Finishing the Thesis
Binding
For the examination, you can submit either
-Two soft-bound copies, or
- One soft-bound and one hard-bound copy.
For the final official submission, you must submit
One soft-bound and one hard-bound copy.
Soft binding costs about £13.00.
Hard binding costs about £21.00.
A list of binders in the area is available at
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck/services/forms/binding.doc
18 November 2010
Finishing the Thesis
Hints on producing a thesis
• Save each chapter as a separate MSWord
file, and put them together at the very end, or
keep them separate and change the page
numbering on each file to be sequential to the
last.
• Back up all work regularly: daily if you are
working on it daily. (You can save it on your
Birkbeck account, by logging into a Cluster
computer and saving it in your Documents
folder, as this is backed up and recorded on
tape off site).
18 November 2010
Finishing the Thesis
• Figures and tables should preferably not be
inserted into text - put them on individual pages
at the end of the chapter, or the text.
• Save figures and tables as separate files and
either print separately or insert into chapter only
when you are about to print.
• Inserting figures into (borderless) text boxes
anchors them on a page and makes positioning
them easier (in MS Word).
• You may use reference management software
(e.g. Endnote, zotero) to insert citations and
create a bibliography/reference list BUT
manually check all your references in the
completed thesis nonetheless.
18 November 2010
Finishing the Thesis
Submitting the Thesis
• Take two copies of the thesis together
with the completed
– Abstract of Thesis form
– Declaration of Number of Words
• The title of the thesis must correspond
EXACTLY to the title on the Exam Entry
Form previously submitted
18 November 2010
Finishing the Thesis
After submission
• Your examiners will read the thesis and
each write a preliminary independent
report.
• They will confer before the viva and
usually plan how they will conduct the
viva and which areas they will want to
cover.
18 November 2010
Finishing the Thesis
The Viva
18 November 2010
Finishing the Thesis
Based on their reading, and the
viva, the examiners will have to
certify that the Ph.D. thesis :
• is genuinely the work of the candidate
• forms a distinct contribution to knowledge of the
subject
• affords evidence of originality: 1) by the discovery of
new facts and/or 2) by the exercise of independent
critical power
• is an integrated whole and presents a coherent
argument [NB a series of papers is not acceptable
but published papers may be adapted and included
in
the thesis]
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2010
Finishing the Thesis
•gives a critical assessment of the relevant
literature; describes the method of research and its
findings;
•includes discussion of those findings and how they
advance the study of the subject;
•in so doing demonstrates a deep and synoptic
understanding of the field of study, objectivity and
the capacity for judgment in complex situations and
autonomous work in that field;
•is satisfactory as regards literary presentation [NB
in English];
•includes a full bibliography and references;
•demonstrates research skills relevant to the thesis;
•is of a standard to merit publication in whole, in part
or18inNovember
a revised
2010
form. Finishing the Thesis