Write your contribution as one sentence that starts "This thesis shows that" and states what you found, not what you did. Then put that same sentence, in near enough the same words, in three places: your abstract, the end of your introduction and the start of your conclusion. Examiners form their view of your contribution in the first 20 to 30 minutes of reading, and spend the rest of the thesis testing it.

The 10-second test

Cover everything on your contribution page except one sentence. Could a stranger, someone outside your field, read that sentence and tell you what you found? If they'd need to read the chapter to answer, your contribution isn't stated yet.

I'm not looking for your aim, your research gap or a list of key findings here. I'm looking for one thing: what does this doctorate add that didn't exist before?

Where examiners look for it

I look for the contribution in three places, in near enough the same words each time:

- the abstract
- the end of the introduction
- the start of the conclusion

That can feel like repetition. It isn't wasted. As an examiner, I form a view of your contribution from the abstract and introduction, then read the rest of the thesis testing that view. If your conclusion says something different, I don't read it as a fresh claim. I read it as an inconsistency, and that goes in my report.

The hardest thing for candidates to hear is this: the contribution is never as obvious from the work as you think. I'm reading 60,000 to 80,000 words, often in a field that isn't quite mine, and I'm waiting for you to tell me.

Why the page in the video gets major corrections

The page sounds competent and academic. That's exactly the danger. It reads like a finished thesis, but not one sentence on it says what was found. It fails in three ways.

1. The gap is offered as the contribution. "Addresses a gap in the literature" is the reason to do a study, not its outcome. Every thesis should address a gap.
2. The method is offered as the finding. Being the first to combine two methods isn't a contribution to knowledge unless the combination produced something the separate methods couldn't, and the page never says it did.
3. The answer is deferred."Discussed more fully in chapter seven" means I'd have to read 150 pages to find out what the thesis claims. By the end of the introduction, I should already know.

One more quick test: underline the verbs that belong to the researcher. On this page they're addresses, adopts, explores and offers. Every one describes an activity. None describes a result.

What I'd write in the examiner's report

State the contribution as a single declarative sentence: what was found, not what was done. Repeat it in the abstract, at the close of chapter one and at the start of the conclusion chapter.

Nothing on that page says it's a bad study. Nothing says it's a good one either. Whoever wrote it probably has a real finding somewhere in chapter five, and nobody ever asked them to say it in one sentence.

Try it on your own thesis tonight

Write one sentence beginning "This thesis shows that". If you can't finish it, that's your finding, and it's far better to know now than in your defense (viva), where candidates who haven't practised this struggle for 30 to 40 seconds.

This is the first of the 5 Examiner Questions I use to read every thesis: what's your contribution? See all five at https://www.phdtoprof.com

Professor Emmanuel Tsekleves has read and reviewed over 100 doctoral theses, examined 45+ across 15+ universities, and is Emeritus Professor at Lancaster University.

Submitting in the next six months? The 8-Week Doctoral Submission Programme gets your thesis examiner-ready: https://www.phdtoprof.com/submission