The document outlines essential steps for preparing and executing a successful dissertation defense, including planning, presentation skills, and audience engagement. It emphasizes the importance of adhering to deadlines, practicing presentations, and being prepared for potential questions from the committee. Additionally, it suggests celebrating post-defense success and ensuring proper distribution of the manuscript copies.

1. By:
Transtutors

2.  Dissertation defense
includes presenting your
ideas, explaining your
choices and decisions, and
laying out the rationale
behind your selection and
research methods.
 The process can be
categorized into three
categories:
 The Preparation Phase
 Dissertation Defense
Meeting
 Celebrating the Success

3.  Adhere to rules and regulations
laid down by your college and
university, and stick to the
deadlines of your defense
schedule.
 Attend the defenses of other
colleagues in the same
department or even other
departments.
 Plan and coordinate the time,
place and venue for your
dissertation defense at least two
months before your big day.
Chairs and committee members
often have busy schedules and
you might have to adjust
everything accordingly.
 Prepare a seamless presentation
of all the material you have, and
practice it.
 Review your manuscript and see
if it consistent with formatting
requirements or not. Also, check
it for any spelling or grammatical
errors.
 Take help of a friend or two to
listen to your presentation, grill
you with questions, and make
constructive suggestions.
 Use pre-defense meeting as an
opportunity to ask your chairs
about the questions or issues
that may be asked during the
defense. Prepare for them well.

4.  You can never be fully prepared for all
the questions that might be asked during
your dissertation defense. Prepare as well
as you can, and be confident and humble
during the meeting.
 Do not underestimate the time it takes to
prepare the ‘perfect’ slides, and give the
‘perfect’ thesis talk. Practice as many
times as you can – on your own and in
groups. You cannot just cram it all in the
last minute and expect to be able to
present it well.
 Record the video of your defense talk
practice, and check it out. You might be
surprised to find out things where you
need to polish yourself.
 Recording your practice talk will also
help to time yourself. Ideally, you should
talk for 45-50 minutes and leave
adequate time for questions to be raised
and answered.

5.  When you watch other people giving
defense talks or watch your own video,
watch out for the body language.
 Do note whether the speaker sounded
sincere or enthusiastic or not.
 Was he or she nervous?
 Was he or she able to keep up the energy
throughout the talk?
 Did the presenter successfully tied up the
entire story in the end, and gave the
audience the big picture?
 Do not use jargon or highly technical
terms, as they tend to put your audience
to sleep. Simplify your dissertation, and
make it interesting by using fun slides
like cartoons or models in between.

6.  Meetings may begin with brief
comments by the chair. You can then
thank all the advisors and
committee members for their time
and efforts.
 Your dissertation defense
presentation should cover:
 Your research question,
 Literature review related to your
theory,
 Research methods and analysis
you used,
 Major findings of your research,
and
 Recommendations for future
research.
 Besides a good structure, it is
important to use formal language
during presentation.
 You may then be asked questions by
the faculty, and discussions will
ensue about on what points the
members agree or disagree with you.
 Two questions you should always be
prepared for are:
 Weak points of your study, and
 Post-dissertation research plans.
 You will then be asked to leave the
room and the faculty will vote for
the approval of your dissertation.
Once the voting is over, you will be
called and informed about the
results.

7.  A successful dissertation defense
does call for a celebration. Check
with the departmental norms for
such celebrations but generally, a
small reception for the committee
members, friends and family is in
order. However, do not make after-
party your priority.
 Get additional copies of your
manuscript published. It is often
expected that you will provide
bound copies of your work to your
chair, committee members,
department, library, and your
friends and family too.
 Attend to the revisions as suggested
by the committee, and start working
on them.

8. To discuss more about your PhD dissertation, you can
talk to our experts at ________________.