Summary of Chapter 12: Beyond the Thesis 149
has become so routine and familiar that some students despair of anyone ever find-
ing it interesting. But do not worry, as you write-up the significance of what you
have done will soon become obvious.
The final phase, perhaps as long as 9 months in a PhD, is very different and re-
quires total commitment and focus. As you create a complete thesis you need to be
familiar with every detail of your work as presented in a sequence of chapters, and
this requires removal of distractions. You may have to give up your outside interests
and social life, and make sure that your partner, or children, or parents, or whoever
it is you live with, is aware of your needs and constraints. This phase can be very
stressful—I’ve known students who share an office to come to blows over triviali-
ties such as a habit of tapping a pencil on a desk—which means that you need to
learn to identify safety valves and when to make use of them.
This may sound surprising, but you may also need to prepare for life after sub-
mission. If you have worked all your waking hours for months on end to get a thesis
finished, submitting it can leave a void in your life. Line up activities such as part-
time work, or plan a holiday. Even a small break can make a big difference.
Summary of Chapter 12: Beyond the Thesis
Publishing:
- Make sure that the good work you are doing in your project gets published.
- The only way to ensure this is to have a dissemination plan. The plan should be
geared to publishing while you are still working on your project. - Regularly give research seminars. Doing so gives you feedback on your project,
and will also form the basis for conference papers and papers in learned journals. - Research papers have a different set of rules and conventions from theses. To
publish papers, you need to address a different readership using these different
conventions. - Papers written on the basis of work done as part of your project should in general
be written jointly with your supervisor and possibly other colleagues too. You
need to do this in a way that respects the input of both parties.
Spoken presentations:
- Spoken presentations are entirely different from written presentations of the
same material. Never just read your written paper to the audience, or even the
same paper with bits left out. - Take the effort to develop your skills as a speaker; these skills will be essential
to your professional life.
Being a graduate student:
- Think and act like the professional researcher that you are striving to become,
taking responsibilities for your work, seeking collegial advice when needed, and
maintaining a sustainable regimen of work. Seek to rectify your weaknesses.