Does your thesis hold together (The Golden Thread)?
When I examine a thesis, I take five sentences from it and write them in one line: the question, the aim, the method, the main finding, and the contribution. If I can draw a straight line through all five, the thesis holds together. If the line bends, I know where my questions will come from before the defence (viva) even starts.
Most theses don’t break in a single place, but they drift, a little at each step, until the contribution at the end answers a slightly different question from the one at the start.
The three pages we’ll read
1 · The research questions and aims. Do the questions actually ask what the aim says the thesis will do?
2 · A methodology justification. Can this method answer this question, or a neighbouring one?
3 · A contribution statement. Does every claim trace back to a finding, or are some of them borrowed from the literature review?
How the hour runs
- First 5 minutes. How an examiner checks alignment, and the test for each page.
- Next 35 minutes. Each page is read aloud, cold. You score it in the chat, pass or revise. Then my verdict, and the sentence I’d write on the examiner’s report.
- Last 20 minutes. Your questions. Live only, not in the recording.
You’ll leave with
- A five-line test for whether your thesis holds together
- A way to check that your method can answer your question
- A check that every contribution you claim has a finding behind it
All three work on your own thesis the same evening.
Can’t make it live? Choose the recording when you register. I’ll email it to you the day after, and it stays up for 7 days only, so watch it that week. The recording has the three pages and my verdicts. The Q&A is live only.
Who it’s for: anyone doing a PhD, DBA , EdD or professional doctorate. If you’re writing up, this is the check to run before your supervisor sees the full draft. If you’re earlier, it’s how to stop the drift before it starts.
