Worry Before Defending a Dissertation?Here a few Oral Defense Questions
Writing your thesis or dissertation and handing it in is not going to be the end of your work. You still have to get through the dreaded oral defense questions. During your defense you will have to persuade your audience that your research paper has been done well and that your findings are both valid and important to your field. If you fail in this your paper may be rejected or you may be tasked with making additional research or changes to your paper. Knowing dissertation defense questions and answers is vital to passing your defense as you will be expected to do far more than just give a brief presentation. Your audience will grill you about your research proposal defense questions and writing to try to find out if you have truly mastered your area. Not being able to answer these questions or answering them poorly is not going to help you pass.
Our specialized thesis defense services will be able to help you to identify the most common thesis defense questions that you might be asked about your research so that you can come up with some credible answers. By being prepared you can ensure that you don’t just stand there in silence scratching your head.
What Are the Common Thesis Defense Questions?
The problem with any list that you will find online is that it is never going to be complete. All audiences are different as is your research. Not every member of the panel is likely to have read your paper even if they were meant to; while others may have scanned it with a magnifying glass looking for issues to raise. So the range of questions that you will be asked can vary enormously as can the success criteria for answering a question well.
It is always best to try to attend a public thesis defense presentation at your institution to see exactly what happens and how those defending handle the dissertation defense questions that they are asked. If possible attend those in your field so that you get a feel for what those people that will be listening to you speak on the day of your defense will react.
The following are some of the most dissertation defense questions that you may be asked; the answers, of course, are personal to you and your research:
- Can you summarize your thesis in just a few sentences? (or even in a single sentence)
- What motivated you to undertake this research?
- Who are the main researchers in this area?
- What are the main ongoing debates or issues?
- Why is your research in this area important?
- Who will be interested in your research?
- What do you recommend based on your findings?
- What are the implications of what you have found to society in general?
- What are the most important papers related to your own research and how is yours different?
- What other developments have been made in your field recently?
- Why did you select the research methodology that you used?
- In hindsight should you have used a different methodology? (Beware they may be looking for you to dig a hole for yourself to invalidate your conclusions and analysis.)
- Would you have discovered anything else if you had used a different approach?
- What are the ethical implications of your work and how should they be dealt with?
- How do you know that what you have found is right?
- What is the weakest part of your work?
- What would you suggest as future research and why?
- If you could start over what would you have done differently? (Again don’t dig a hole to fall into.)
- What advice would you give to yourself if you could go back to the start of your research?
- Do you intend to publish any of your research? If so, where?
You must always fully understand your personal research and must know the paper that you have written inside out. Failing to answer dissertation defense questions on your rationale and hypothesis straight from your paper is not going to help you through the defense. Always take great care when answering questions so as not to invalidate anything from within your research. You do not want the audience to doubt the validity of your conclusions or to believe that your data is any way flawed. If you are going to give many presentations it is always useful to ask your audience to complete a presentation feedback form. Your presentation survey dissertation defense questions can be worded to help you better deliver your presentation when it comes time for your actual oral examination.
How Can Our Experts Help with Your Defense Question and Answers?
Our experts are fully qualified to postgraduate degree level in your field of research so they will be able to work with you to identify more specific dissertation defense questions that may be asked regarding your research so that you can prepare meaningful answers. They can also provide you with a full coaching support to practice the many defense questions that you will be able to answer as well as those that you cannot. Our experts can walk you through strategies that you can use to provide a response to those dissertation defense questions that you don’t have an answer for without giving yourself any issues. All of our support is provided with a full satisfaction money-back guarantee as well as always being delivered on time.