How To Avoid Failure During Your Dissertation Defense: An Effective Tutorial


The Ph.D. defense portion of this whole process is the part when you try your very best to defend your thesis. You pull out all the stops to show and prove why your view is the right or more effective view. The defense is usually in the form of a presentation or talk with the department of your Ph.D. This may sound terrifying, and in reality, it kind of is terrifying. But, that does not mean that you cannot ace this part and wow your department with your Ph.D. defense. Once you have a firm and concrete thesis topic, you are ready to do research and start this long process of dissertation writing. To make this less scary, and more productive, below are some helpful pieces of advice that will hopefully ease your stress and make you more prepared to rock your Ph.D. defense presentation.

  • Speak With confidence and clarity.
  • Confidence is key. You need to speak with conviction and be sure of what you are saying. If you are stating a fact, then do not say it as if it is a question or you are unsure about it. Also, you need to be 100% clear with everything you are saying so that the audience is not confused. If they are confused, they will call you out on it, and you will have to come up with a buffer. Avoid that by being clear the first time around.

  • Rehearse your major lines and Practice your slides.

  • Know what you are arguing like the back of your hand.

  • Dress to impress.

  • Listen to other defense beforehand.

  • Anticipate for tough questions from the audience.
  • The department’s faculty is there to hear what you have to say while also preparing to grill you with questions to damper your defense. So, before the presentation put yourself in their shoes and pick out things in your defense that have a counterargument that could trip you up. Form a response to those questions. Then, after doing it yourself, have other people such as family or friends hear your presentation and drill you with tough questions that you can form responses to.

  • Go to bed early and eat a small meal.
  • You want to make sure you take care of yourself mentally and physical so that you can actually get through the presentation. In case you get extremely nervous, do not eat a very large meal beforehand. It would be pretty bad to puke on the platform.

As long as you are in tune with your thesis and are passionate about what you are arguing, then you should have an easy time presenting your defense. And hopefully, the tips help you get it done even more smoothly. If you end up needing a little more guidance in your defense, then it would also be wise to check out this company.

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