Defending My Dissertation
I recently defended my dissertation, and I want to share a little bit about the process with you.
First, make sure that you can summarize your argument and thesis clearly and concisely. Your committee might ask for that succinct summary directly, but even if they do not, having this prepared is going to help you. After all, as the questions come, you are going to want to frame your answers in the context of your entire paper. Your answers need to be direct, and you want to be able to get to the point completely but also quickly. You don’t want to have to explain your entire dissertation in response to every question. Instead, if you can set your answer concisely in the context of your paper, it will work out better for you.
Let me tell you that by the time you get to the defense of your dissertation, you are going to be tired of your dissertation. It is not that you won’t find your topic interesting anymore. It is not that you will never write about your topic ever again. However, you are going to read through your dissertation over and over again, and you are just going to get sick of certain parts of it. There are going to be those paragraphs that you just don’t feel like you got right, but you also don’t know how to make them any better. There are going to be those word choices you made because you had to put some word there, but you can’t help but feel like there could have been a better word. Every time you read those parts again, you’re going to get frustrated.
These parts are going to tire you out more than the 95% of your dissertation that you are moderately okay with. That 95% is still going to bother you at times, of course, but that remaining 5% is really going to wear you out. As you approach your defense, you are going to have to come to terms with the fact that, after all this time, you have put it the best way you know how. Ultimately, that’s all you can do. You have to do your best, but you have to realize that you are going to be tired of your dissertation by the time you actually get to defend it, and you’re specifically going to be tired of that 5% that you have obsessed over and still feel uncomfortable with.
Then you’re going to get to the time immediately before your defense, and, if you’re anything like me, your mind is going to go blank. You know your topic very well. After all, you have been studying it for a long time. It is your specialty. However, as you begin to prepare for your defense, you will feel like there is so much more that you need to cram into your head to be adequately prepared. Remember that that’s not true. You know the information, but you are going to feel like you don’t. I could tell you to relax, but, in reality, that has never helped anyone relax. However, I would encourage you to start writing down some notes. Write down whatever you can remember. Write down whatever is associated to whatever you can remember. I found this exercise helped me. This kind of free association helped me recall things that were somewhere in my mind. I had forgotten they were there, but they had never left.
I think you might experience this phenomenon during your defense as well. You will be asked a question, and as you start to answer it, you will remember other things you had written. I was even remembering content from sources that I didn’t ultimately quote in my paper, but as I was talking about different topics, the memories of what I had read came back. Don’t panic when you feel like your memory is going to let you down. That’s hard; it was nerve-racking for me especially in the final days before my defense. However, I found this type of free association exercise ahead of time made me feel better, and these types of associations helped me during my defense as well. Remember that you know your topic very well. Have confidence that it is in your mind, and you just need to bring it back to the forefront.
Finally, as you prepare, you’re probably going to come across something that you hadn’t thought of before. You are going to see something with a different perspective. That can be unnerving. You might be tempted to overhaul your entire argument. Keep in mind that this is very rarely needed. Again, this is your specialty. You are an expert on your dissertation topic. You have thought about your arguments, and you have already put forward the ones that you thought were best. Do not doubt yourself at the last minute. We all have a tendency to want to make massive changes, but I would like to assure you that that is very rarely necessary at the last minute. If you have spent all of this time working on a specific project and after all of that time of thinking about it, you are hit with a sudden desire to change the entire thing right before it is due, those are your nerves talking. If such massive changes are needed, they are going to hit you long before the last minute. You will recognize those while you are writing your dissertation itself. Therefore, when you get these last-minute urges, I would resist them in almost all circumstances. I suppose there is a possible situation where they are needed, but by and large, don’t let your mind play tricks with you.
I have only defended one dissertation. I am far from a subject matter expert. That said, these are a few things that hit me as I was working on my dissertation, and I thought they could be of some use to you. I have to imagine that if you are reading this article, you are just about to defend your own dissertation. If so, best of luck to you and remember to have confidence. You got this!