#168 - What Examiners Read First: The 10-Minute Alignment Check

Last week someone asked me how examiners read a thesis. I think they expected me to say page one.

We don't read it front to back. Not the first time, anyway. My order is the abstract, then the contribution part of the conclusion, then back to the introduction, then the methodology. Only then do I get to the findings. Most examiners I know work in roughly the same order.

At each stop I'm checking something very specific:

• The abstract shows me whether you know what you did,
• The conclusion whether you delivered it.
• Then the introduction: did you promise it in the first place?
• The methodology is where I decide whether I believe any of it.

So by the time I reach your findings, I've already got a view. Your findings end up as evidence for or against it.

The Gap Examiners Spot Before Chapter One

Here's exactly where it goes wrong. This is from an abstract:

"This study explores the factors influencing technology adoption among small manufacturers."

In fact, this is from the conclusion of the same thesis, which I read about four minutes later:

"This study shows that small manufacturers adopt technology to reassure lenders, rather than to improve productivity."

The second example one is a claim, whereas the first one is a topic. They aren't describing the same thesis, and I'd noticed before I had read a single chapter properly.

I should say that I do not think that the candidate was careless here. The abstract was written early, or in a rush at the end, and the conclusion changed on as the work did. But it's the first thing I see, and from then on I'm reading to work out which one you meant.

When they disagree, trust your conclusion

If yours disagree, the conclusion is usually the truer one. Why? Simply, because you knew more by the time you wrote it. So rewrite the abstract to match. Then check your introduction promises the same thing.

Tonight's check

Here's tonight's job, and it takes about ten minutes.

1. Open your abstract and your conclusion side by side.
2. Read only the sentence in each that states your contribution.
3. Ask whether they name the same thing, in roughly the same words.?

It's a small change, but it decides whether I start out trusting you.

The Alignment Check, is a one-page guide. It shows the order I read in and what a real mismatch looks like. There's also space to copy out your own three sentences and see if they agree: Download it here

Note: The issues will be shorter from now on, and they'll cover more ground: writing and method some weeks, AI in your research others, and getting published after that. Once a month I'll send a longer one on what I'm seeing across the free sessions and the Doctoral Circle, and in the writing people send me to read.

Until next week,

Prof. Emmanuel Tsekleves