Robinah (who led a discussion about her project in 2011) passed her viva in December 2012. She kindly agreed to complete the post-viva questionnaire that was drawn up after last month's discussion group. Her responses are below.
What is the title of your thesis?
Information and HIV/AIDS: an
ethnographic study of information behaviour.
Can you provide an abstract (for
inclusion in this blog)?
See Abstract.
How long did you spend preparing for your viva?
3 years and 4 months.
How long did your viva take?
1 hour 25 minutes.
Is there anything you wish you had
done differently?
Part of me thinks nothing - it is a
learning experience, but practically I might have...
- tried
to obtain full funding for the PhD (to enable me commit ample time to
research);
- included
a quantitative element in my study;
- allowed
ample time after writing up. I
would like to have got away from my work for at least a week and thoroughly
re-read the thesis to be able to identify formatting problems, such as
extra spaces, before submission;
- published more papers.
Did the examiners concentrate on any
particular section of your thesis? If so, which?
Although my examiners moved
systematically right from the abstract to Chapter 9, they concentrated on the
methodology, including justification for the choice of the approach employed. They sought to know how I gained access to
the research setting, how I addressed ethical issues, and built a rapport with
the participants.
Can you describe any part of your viva
where you were pleased with your performance?
The literature review and findings
chapters.
What was it you did that pleased you?
I was mostly pleased when the
examiners said that my literature review and analysis were competently
presented that they had no questions to ask.
I was also pleased by the fact that the examiners confirmed my claim
about the contribution to knowledge. They
advised me to publish papers in order to disseminate the findings.
Can you describe any part of your viva
where you were dissatisfied with your performance?
The model.
What was it you did that dissatisfied
you?
Although my model was a good attempt
to present all the findings, it was perceived to be complex.
Please give an example of a question
that you found hard.
Why didn’t you use Grounded Theory
(GT)?
Why was it hard?
It was hard because both my examiners are
so much in the tradition of employing GTto Library and Information Science
research. However, I had strong reasons
for choosing the ethnographic approach to the study of information behaviour of
persons infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS.
This enabled me to defend my decision to employ ethnography and not GT.
What was the outcome of your viva?
The examiners recommended the award of
a PhD subject to minor amendments.
Please give some examples of the sort
of corrections you need to make (if any).
Some
examples of the corrections I needed to make:
- Spacing
issues page 49,51,97,113,118,121
- On
occasions you omit spaces e.g 3,5,33,50, 97,
- The model
is complex. It needs to be made
simpler then it will have more impact and make it easier for the reader to
follow the explanation.
- Page. 38 cognitive needs a capital “C”
- Different font sizes on page 48.
Do you have any tips for looking and
feeling confident in front of the examiners?
Tips:
- Be
passionate about your work
- Know your
thesis so well in order to defend it.
- Practice answering viva questions
- Request for
a mock viva to be arranged
- Talk to
other people about your work. Their
feedback can greatly enhance your confidence
Can you think of any good advice that
you would give to students who are preparing for their viva?
ALLOW ENOUGH TIME TO THOROUGHLY REVISE
THE THESIS.
STOP REVISING AND GET AWAY FROM YOUR
THESIS AT LEAST THREE DAYS TO THE VIVA.
IT WILL SURELY COME BACK TO YOU DURING
THE VIVA
No comments:
Post a Comment