Common Thesis mistakes
Common mistakes and how to avoid them
Alaric Maude
Having a topic that is too big.
Beginning PhD students often believe that they must tackle much bigger or hard-to-research questions than could possibly be answered in a PhD, just because this is the way that questions are framed in the research literature that they read. But professional researchers in universities will typically have many more resources for tackling big issues (such as large budgets, sophisticated research technologies at their disposal, large cooperative research teams, or squads of people to assist them). What is a good question for professional researchers to address is not usually a good question for someone doing a PhD thesis in lone-scholar, no-budget mode. (Dunleavy 2003, p. 20)
But a topic that is too small makes it difficult for you to demonstrate that you have made a contribution to knowledge.
Not being clear about your thesis topic. Try the ‘dinner party [pub/disco] test’.
The challenge posed by having to explain your thesis topic can also be a salutary stimulant to clarifying your own thinking. During the course of your doctorate there will be gruesome occasions, at dinner parties or drinks with strangers, when someone turns to you and asks what it is you do. Once you admit to working on a doctorate, your conversation partner’s inevitable fellow-through is to ask about your subject. From this point on you have typically about two minutes to convince your normally sceptical inquisitor that you know what you are doing and that it is a worthwhile thing to be at.
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So the ‘dinner party test’ is always a frustrating experience to undergo, and many students feel that it is an impossible one for them to pass. To expect them to be able to capture the essence of their sophisticated and specialized topic, and to convey it in a few lines to a complete stranger, is just absurdly to underestimate what they are about. Yet in my view the test is a good one. If you cannot give
Alaric Maude
Having a topic that is too big.
Beginning PhD students often believe that they must tackle much bigger or hard-to-research questions than could possibly be answered in a PhD, just because this is the way that questions are framed in the research literature that they read. But professional researchers in universities will typically have many more resources for tackling big issues (such as large budgets, sophisticated research technologies at their disposal, large cooperative research teams, or squads of people to assist them). What is a good question for professional researchers to address is not usually a good question for someone doing a PhD thesis in lone-scholar, no-budget mode. (Dunleavy 2003, p. 20)
But a topic that is too small makes it difficult for you to demonstrate that you have made a contribution to knowledge.
Not being clear about your thesis topic. Try the ‘dinner party [pub/disco] test’.
The challenge posed by having to explain your thesis topic can also be a salutary stimulant to clarifying your own thinking. During the course of your doctorate there will be gruesome occasions, at dinner parties or drinks with strangers, when someone turns to you and asks what it is you do. Once you admit to working on a doctorate, your conversation partner’s inevitable fellow-through is to ask about your subject. From this point on you have typically about two minutes to convince your normally sceptical inquisitor that you know what you are doing and that it is a worthwhile thing to be at.
…
So the ‘dinner party test’ is always a frustrating experience to undergo, and many students feel that it is an impossible one for them to pass. To expect them to be able to capture the essence of their sophisticated and specialized topic, and to convey it in a few lines to a complete stranger, is just absurdly to underestimate what they are about. Yet in my view the test is a good one. If you cannot give