THE END-GAME◆ 209your research plan was badly flawed all along, or that you did
not previously know what you were doing. Instead it reflects the
intellectual developments and advances which you can often
only make once all the building blocks of the thesis have come
into being. Redefining the thesis title and abstract in closure
mode, and redoing the opening and final chapters in an inte-
grating way, all create a crucially important opportunity for you
to adjust your intellectual focus squarely back on to your central
thesis question. Even if you have faithfully maintained a rolling
synopsis throughout the period since your first year of PhD stud-
ies, the chances are that you will have a lot of catch-up activity
to do. Inherently you could not recognize any earlier than this
what has worked in the thesis and what has not, and what you
have achieved or missed achieving. And if the theoretical litera-
ture in your field has also moved on substantially since you
started the thesis, you should expect to make some revisions of
important terminology and to rescind some intellectual judge-
ments made early on. At this late stage, however, it is also very
important to ‘keep faith’ with what you have done. Do not lapse
into an overcritical mode characterized by regret at what you did
not attempt, or what you tried but that did not work.
Nor should you fall prey to the illusion that another three-
month push on a new aspect of your topic would sort things out.
You must not try at this late stage to add yet another building
block to the thesis, unless you have the clearest possible steer from
your supervisors or advisers that the dissertation is not viable
without it. Recognize that, for better or worse, your work is now
in its final configuration and that there are good reasons for that.
Focus on defining the boundaries of your thesis appropriately and
restrict new research efforts only to essential infilling activity
needed to get a viable boundary. There will be other writings and
other research projects in your life, especially if you become a pro-
fessional academic. Perhaps in future you may return produc-
tively to these problems and themes after an interregnum.
Submitting the thesis and choosing examiners
I used to be indecisive, but now I’m not so sure.
Boscoe Pertwee^5