You’ve been planning, brainstorming, proposing, outlining, drafting, researching, writing, screaming, kicking, crying, celebrating, and everything in between, in order to finally get your initial draft completed.

The good news has finally arrived! You’ve spent hundreds of hours (but what probably has felt like millions of hours) working on your dissertation. You’ve been planning, brainstorming, proposing, outlining, drafting, researching, writing, screaming, kicking, crying, celebrating, and everything in between, in order to finally get your initial draft completed. You’ve submitted this draft to your adviser and other committee members and, finally, you’ve received the initial approval.

However, there’s one more step, just one more task to accomplish so you can finally get to the PhD end zone. You get a call from a university staff member (or perhaps your adviser) informing you of the date and time for your dissertation defense. This means you will be presenting in front of your committee and defending your dissertation by answering their questions and addressing any comments and concerns. So, at this point, all that is standing between you and your PhD is that presentation.

But, as thousands upon thousands of students find out every year after failing their defense, doing this is much easier said than done. However, Dissertation Genius is here to help. We’ve gathered over two decades of dissertation experience and combined them into a special five-part blog series focused on helping you defend your dissertation and finally acquire that PhD (or Master’s Degree). You should also keep in mind that this series is fully applicable to Master’s theses, not just to doctoral dissertations. In fact, you can replace the word ‘dissertation’ with ‘thesis’ at any time and do nothing to decrease the content’s usefulness or credibility.

Now regarding the defense of your dissertation, you should try to look at it as four distinct parts, four important stages that you must go through to reach that finish line. These include:

Based on these four stages, HAMNIC Solutions has created the Dissertation Defense Preparation tips consisting of five separate stages in the defense prep process. Here’s some information about each part:

Now, here is PART ONE of Dissertation Genius’ ‘Dissertation Defense Prep’ POWER series.

When it comes to the actual presentation of your dissertation, the PowerPoint itself plays a crucial role in helping you give a knockout defense. Most universities today require some sort of PowerPoint presentation during the thesis or dissertation defense and, even if it’s not required, you should use it for your defense.

Now, first thing’s first. Most schools require their students to follow a certain PowerPoint format for their dissertation or thesis defense. So, you must first understand exactly what format your university or faculty requires. If this isn’t clarified in the overall dissertation or thesis guidelines, simply ask your adviser. If your adviser mentions there isn’t a particular format mandated, or if he or she is too busy to answer, ask a colleague of the same faculty for a PowerPoint that was used recently in a successful defense.

If you still don’t have the answer you’re looking for, do not worry since just about all dissertation or thesis PowerPoints follow a general formula. Basically, the format of your PowerPoint should contain guidelines similar to the following:

Keep in mind that there may be additional parts required for your PowerPoint and, either way, you must refer to your university guidelines for the exact structure. The above proposed structure and guidelines simply act as a guide to help you understand the expectations of the PowerPoint in general. Of course, you will submit a draft of your PowerPoint to your adviser to make sure it is up to university standards.

To keep reading bullet points and text, text, and more text from a PowerPoint is not a good way to defend your dissertation unless you want to completely bore your audience. Therefore, you always want to try to include visual representations of your information and, in particular, for data found in the results, analysis, and discussion sections. Try to use charts, tables, and graphs whenever possible in order to replace boring text. You will find that doing this is immensely useful for your audience and yourself.

“The insertion of images and visual data representations like charts, graphs & tables will not only add a dynamic flow to your
presentation, which will keep your audience engaged and interested, but will also keep you relaxed since visuals are able to do much of the ‘talking’ for you, therefore keeping things simple, putting you at ease and increasing your confidence.”

It is important that your PowerPoint revolves around the results & conclusions of your study. In other words, you should focus on Chapters 4 and 5. The purpose of all you’ve done in your dissertation is to add knowledge to your field of study by conducting research that should lead to useful results which, in turn, should spark interesting discussion and, even if not discovering some kind of valid theory, at least spark ideas for future research to build on the findings of your research.

Therefore, your PowerPoint should include a relatively brief overview of Chapters 1 – 3 of your dissertation (Introduction, Literature Review, and Research Methodology). Meanwhile, you should emphasize the information contained in the Results and Discussion chapters of your dissertation.

Avoid too much detail as you are creating your PowerPoint. Make sure you’re not drowning your PowerPoint in too many words or facts. Many times, students too much on a particular point only to begin veering off course with too much painstaking detail. Avoid doing this when you’re creating your presentation and inserting its content. Moreover, a presentation with too much information will undoubtedly lose the interest of your audience. So, avoid it at all costs.

Remember that you are creating your PowerPoint for nothing more than having it there during your presentation to help YOU! The defense is not a sales presentation and there’s no reason you should use glitzy styling, fancy coloring, distracting animation between slide transitions, and all that other stuff. Keep your layout simple, professional, and easy-to-read by keeping the following things in mind when creating your PowerPoint:

When you finish this draft of your PowerPoint (and proofread it), send it over to your adviser to get his or her take on things. Now keep in mind that they may take some time for a reply so you should go ahead and start with the next phases of the process which include taking care of the technical requirements and shifting into the correct mindset. Regardless, make sure you send it to your adviser as soon as you finish. This way, if there are any major issues with the PowerPoint itself, you will have news of them before, and not while, you’re conducting your defense.

Before you move on to the next part, there is something important that you should keep in mind. When you complete your PowerPoint in this initial phase, and even after you get the approval of your adviser, don’t expect it is going to be the same exact PowerPoint that will be in front of you during your actual dissertation presentation/defense.

When you finish your PowerPoint at this point and have your adviser review it, you will be preparing with other aspects such as rehearsing and taking care of technical requirements. When rehearsing, you will undoubtedly find areas in your PowerPoint that could be improved, and you will probably modify the PowerPoint in several places. Just keep in mind that when you initially complete your PowerPoint presentation and have it approved by your adviser, you will probably slightly modify it several times later in the process.

Now that you’ve prepared an appropriate PowerPoint, it’s time to deal with the technical issues of your presentation, and this is exactly where HAMNIC Solutions come in.

In general, there are three levels of technical requirements that you must take care of before the day of your presentation. These include:

First of all, when the date and time have been set for your defense, do not wait one single moment to find out in which room you will be presenting in. Also, as soon as possible, visit the room (when it’s empty and not in use of course). If you are presenting virtually, be sure to choose a room in your home or office that makes you feel comfortable and confident. Make sure that the room is appropriate for your presentation by considering factors such as size, seating, appropriate number of power outlets, environmental control, cleanliness, and lighting. You want to make sure that your audience and committee members are sitting on comfortable chairs, that there is proper lighting, and that the tables & power outlets are set up appropriately for your presentation equipment (the testing of your equipment will be discussed below). If you are at home make sure that your background is neat- otherwise choose a professional virtual background to use in Zoom. If you feel there are any issues with the room in any way, either resolve them or request another room as soon as possible. In under no circumstances should you wait until the last minute to resolve any issues with your room or, even worse, to request a different room.

Since you will be presenting using PowerPoint, you will need a computer (preferably a laptop) and some kind of projector. You will also need your actual PowerPoint presentation file to use while conducting your equipment test. Also, you can secure any piece of recording equipment (optional) if you choose to record your presentation. This can be any type of voice recorder, tape recorder, or simply your smart phone. If you are presenting virtually, use zoom and record the session.

If you are having any trouble securing any of these, talk to your advisor or email them as soon as possible while cc’ing any relevant authority to communicate the urgency of this matter and to have it resolved as soon as possible. Securing the equipment of your defense is no light matter, so make sure you never ever treat it as such.

Next, after securing the appropriate equipment, and after ensuring your laptop or computer has Microsoft Office PowerPoint installed, make sure you test all your equipment. To conduct this test, make sure you ask for the projector that you will be using on the presentation day. If it is not available at the time you ask for it, ask when it’ll be available for you to run a test, and then conduct a test on that particular day.

In addition, do not consider conducting your test in any random place. Make sure you test all your equipment in the same room that you will be conducting your actual presentation in. If you do not do this, even if you have fully-functioning equipment, you may still face technical issues or delays on the day of your defense such as not having power cables long enough to reach certain outlets, or having the room structured in a way where you won’t be able to display the screen output on the appropriate wall. Therefore, do not underestimate the importance of conducting an equipment test in the same room that you’ll be conducting your presentation in.

When you conduct the test, you should do so by actually simulating a small part of your PowerPoint presentation as close to the same conditions as will be on the day of your defense. There is no need to simulate the entire presentation since the goal here is to simply test that your equipment, hardware and software, is working properly.

In particular, you will want to set up the equipment in the same manner it would be set up during the real presentation. Therefore, set up everything as you would during the real thing and, when you display your actual PowerPoint presentation on the projector, make sure you flip through some of your slides to ensure that your file has no issues on this particular computer/laptop especially if it is different than the computer/laptop you used to create your PowerPoint. Finally, record and resolve any issues as soon as possible.

There are several things you will need for your presentation besides the technology. These include the following:

When you secure all the equipment you need for your presentation, make sure you TRIPLE CHECK EVERYTHING. Testing was mentioned above but its importance cannot be overemphasized. Conduct a test of all your equipment and do so in the same room in which you will be conducting your presentation. In particular, make sure that:

However, no matter how much time you spend preparing, and how many times you test something beforehand, you may still experience surprise emergency setbacks during your presentations. Therefore, it is imperative that you have backup plans in place which should at least include:

Stage two of the dissertation defense process consists of taking care of all the technical issues of your upcoming defense. These include securing the particular room that you will be presenting in and making sure this room is fully appropriate to conduct your presentation in.

Next, you should secure all the required equipment and make sure they will be available on the day of the presentation. You should also conduct thorough testing of your equipment which includes both hardware and software testing.

Finally, you should prepare all necessary paperwork & documents and also have on hand a backup plan in case things go wrong during your presentation.

Taking care of the technical issues of your presentation will go a long way in giving you peace of mind in the certain technical areas of your presentation. It will also go a long way in maximizing the effectiveness of your presentation and in making sure everything runs smoothly on the big day.

But, it is also imperative that you gain peace of mind in the physical and mental aspects when preparing for your defense.

You’ve thought of the dissertation topic. You’ve worked hard to get your proposal accepted. You’ve conducted research, gathered the data, and analyzed the results. You now have a working draft of your thesis and initial submission is close at hand. However, you need to make sure your dissertation is formatted properly before those analytical eyes start criticizing. It is also vital you make a good first impression when you submit that initial draft. This part helps you make sure your dissertation is formatted correctly before that first submission.

For dissertation formatting, there are three important elements you want to keep in mind and each one is discussed below in more detail:

Checking existing dissertation formatting guidelines with your University department
Making sure your dissertation is properly structured
Reviewing other people’s completed Dissertation work

Check Existing University Dissertation Formatting Guidelines

The first thing you must do is refer to your particular university (or university department) guidelines on formatting your dissertation. Most doctoral universities will have guidelines on how to properly format your dissertation. Most of the time, your university or particular department will make it mandatory to follow these guidelines but sometimes they exist simply as a non-mandatory guide. Regardless, make sure you check with your department, university, or relevant authority (e.g. dissertation adviser) to see if formatting guidelines exist in your case, and make sure to read and follow it! Although many doctoral students receive these guidelines in the early stages of their dissertation, they forget about it later on and make the mistake of not referring back to it before they make their submission.

Remember, your university’s formatting guidelines may differ across disciplines. It is important to remember that dissertation formatting guidelines may differ across the various disciplines and majors in your university. So while your university may have general guidelines for formatting dissertations, certain specifics may vary from department to department. So make sure you contact your dissertation adviser to know exactly what guidelines exist in your situation.

Your university department may have sent you a dissertation template to follow. When you first contacted your chairperson, dean, or whoever the point-of-contact was, you were probably sent a template to follow for writing your dissertation. Whether or not this template is required, make sure to refer back to it at this point.

Make sure you have used the proper formatting & style requirements set by your department. At this point, you should already know exactly what formatting style to use (MLA, APA, Turabian, or Chicago style). However, it is a good idea to check to see what is required. I’ve seen many students write their entire dissertation using a particular format and style only to get it back from an angry dissertation committee because another formatting style was stipulated. Remember, formatting styles may also vary across disciplines. So even though your colleague may use MLA, your discipline may require APA. Be careful!

Make Sure Your Dissertation is Properly Structured

Next, it is important to make sure your dissertation is properly structured and that all chapters and sections are in the correct order. In this case, you can also check for your university or department formatting guidelines. If you are not sure, the following is a generally-accepted dissertation structure:

Title Page
Acknowledgements
Dedication
Abstract (may be discipline specific)
Table of Contents
List of Tables and/or List of Figures
Introduction
Literature Review
Methodology
Findings/Results
Discussion and/or Conclusions
Bibliography/References
Appendices

Other generally-accepted guidelines:

Size 12 font
Times New Roman
Double-spaced
1.5-inch margins on the left with one-inch margins for the rest
Proper page-number formatting

The above dissertation structure is not set in stone. You must check with any formal guidelines, and if you’re still not sure of your dissertation structure, refer back to your dissertation adviser and ask him or her what particular structure to follow. You can also contact an experienced dissertation consultant who can help you make sure your entire dissertation is ready to submit and at a publishable level.

Review Other People’s Completed Dissertation Work!

You can, and should, always review a dissertation completed by a previous student even if you cannot use it as a template. Simply reviewing the format used by other students is a great way to familiarize yourself with what is expected especially in terms of organization and chapter structure. Whenever possible, review a dissertation study submitted (and accepted) by a student in the same university discipline as yourself. Also, try to read the most recent ones as possible.

Last Words on Formatting your Dissertation

Although it is obvious to mention that you must re-read your entire dissertation to check for grammatical errors, it is simply too important to leave out. You will probably have used a spell-checker at this point but spelling is such a small part of grammar. You may have the wrong use of words or other grammatical mistakes like fragments, dangling modifiers, comma use, etc. To make sure everything is formatted correctly, either get your dissertation adviser to go over the entire dissertation or, if he or she doesn’t have time, you can refer to a professional dissertation coach to do this quickly and effectively.

A Dissertation Checklist: 5 Questions to Check Your Progress

How hard do you work? How hard do you study? As a student who has reached the doctorate level, no doubt you’ve worked very hard to get to this point. With that being said, do you feel like no matter how hard you work, you are still behind on the dissertation goals you set for the coming months or year?

If this is the case, you probably think to yourself that you simply must work harder and longer. Or maybe you are questioning your own ability to complete the thesis? Don’t even think about calling it quits!

When you first drafted your dissertation proposal, you set dissertation goals for the coming year. But, just about all doctoral students (past and present) will fall behind their proposed work plan. So with a new year, it may be time to revisit your goal and plan.
The Reality: There is a big difference between goals and daily work

So how is falling behind your goals possible? It’s simple actually. There is obviously a difference between what you planned for the coming year and how you are working/studying on a daily basis. Of course, planning is a necessary tool of life.

This article will give you tools to reduce that gap between your goals and your actual progress. These tools run according to the ‘monthly progress monitor’ concept formulated by 2 authors from their exceptional work Mastering your PhD (Gosling & Noordam, 2011).

Your Solution: The Monthly Dissertation Progress Monitor Checklist

So how exactly do you use this monthly progress monitor checklist? The concept is very simple and all you must do is answer 5 questions every month (as fully and honestly as possible of course!). These are the questions:

What are the most important results I obtained the last month?
Did I deviate from the planning of the last month? If so, why?
What are my most important goals for the coming month?
What do I have to do to meet these goals?
What can I do to overcome any hurdles on the way?

So why will these questions help? They help you because the answers you extract will allow you to identify certain patterns (healthy or otherwise) and will also allow you to prepare more fully for meetings with your dissertation supervisor.

Question #1 – What are the most important results I obtained last month?
This first question helps you to elucidate which of your activities were productive and which of them were not. Which were the substantive accomplishments related to your dissertation? Which of your accomplishments weren’t related. When you clear up the answers to this question, you will find it much easier to prioritize your tasks.

Question #2 – Did I deviate from last month’s planning? And if so, why?
The answer(s) to this particular question will also help you identify particular patterns and habits in your work routine. It will also help you realize if you’ve deviated from the plan for some time now.
Answering this question is vital – and perhaps difficult since you are forced to pick at any shortcomings within yourself. Keep in mind deviations don’t necessarily have to come from yourself. External circumstances can also play a role. Regardless, once you answer this question and clearly identify your deviations and reasons behind them, the solution will appear.

Question #3 – What are my most important goals for the coming month?
Answering this particular question will allow you to plan ahead more realistically since you now have the answers from question #2. Here, it is imperative that you are as detailed as possible when you delineate your goals. It is also important to mention that you should be very specific when outlining these goals. To illustrate, ‘to read more journals and articles on the subject’ is not a precise goal. A more specific goal would be, for example, ‘to read fifteen more articles from the American Journal of Psychiatry.’

Questions #4 and #5 – What do I have to do to meet these goals? And what can I do to overcome any hurdles on the way?
At this point, you have looked back at your actions and planning from last month. You have analyzed the effects of your work and their results. And you have come up with concrete goals for the upcoming month.
But for questions 4 and 5, answering them will probably be far more difficult to answer than the previous three. You probably won’t find fully-concrete answers since these questions have to do with forecasting the future. Nonetheless, simply reflecting on matters such as potential hurdles proves to be an immensely useful exercise. The greatest minds of history, regardless of background, used meticulous planning and the foreseeing of problems so they can solve them if and when the need arose. This is called contingency planning (in other spheres it is called ‘risk management’).
The point is that trying to stay one step ahead of your problems is a necessary skill you must cultivate, both for your dissertation and in your later career, no matter what career that may be.

Contact HAMNIC Solutions for Any Other Inquiries or Concerns About Your Dissertation. We can Help!

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Preparing for Your Dissertation Defense: Key Steps for Creating an Effective PowerPoint Presentation

Formatting your Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Check Existing University Dissertation Formatting Guidelines

Make Sure Your Dissertation is Properly Structured

Review Other People’s Completed Dissertation Work!

Last Words on Formatting your Dissertation

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