Research Questions in defence | Thesis English Literature

In a single sentence please summarize your paper.

What is the singular idea on which your paper is based?

Why is the issue that you have chosen worthy of your thesis?

Cite the two most important sources for your work

How did you formulate your research questions?

Why did you choose this particular research methodology over others that were available?

What advice would you give to anyone undertaking a similar thesis?

What value will your research bring to others in your field?

Did you encounter any ethical issues during the course of your research and if so how did you get over this?

Do you intend to publish your work? If so, where?

Tell me a bit about your thesis - Prepare a 2–3 minute summary that you can parrot out to calm your nerves.

Why did you choose to study X? - This is potentially a personal question, so you may need to prepare an answer

that you’re happy to share.

What are the limitations of the method you used? - Probably more common for STEM subjects, but may still be

valid for arts and humanities.

Why did you choose to use X method over Y method? - A way of checking how well you know the literature, and

weigh up advantages/disadvantages of methods.

 If you were to continue your work (with no time/resource contraints), what would you do? - A PhD is never

complete, and most students will have thought about what they’d like to do next. The two versions of the

question can be revealing though, as they get at how carefully you’ve thought about it in terms of feasibility

and/or creativity.

Taking into account the recent paper by X on Y, does this change your interpretation of your results? - Always a

good way to check the student has been paying attention to current events in their field (although it would be

valid to say that you hadn’t seen the paper and could they summarize), and how they incorporate new

information/evaluate new evidence.

You’ve referred to X paper, can you tell me a bit more about it? - This probably doesn’t happen so often unless

you’ve cited something that’s contentious for some reason. It’s an opportunity to be critical of the paper in a

reasoned manner.

What are the contributions of your thesis? In what way does the research make an important contribution to

the field of study?

What are the strengths and weaknesses of your research?

Did you face any problem while conducting the work? How did you negate those problems?

If you are told to redo your work, would you have done it differently?

Why did you choose this particular method for your study? What are the alternative methods that can be used

to do this particular study?

What motivated you to take up this particular study? What was your research question or hypothesis?

What are the major findings of your research project?

What is the background research you did for your study?

Why is your work original and authentic?

What are the practical implications of your research?

1. Can you start by summarising your thesis?

2. Now, can you summarise it in one sentence?

3. What is the idea that binds your thesis together?

4. What motivated and inspired you to carry out this research?

5. What are the main issues and debates in this subject area?

6. Which of these does your research address?

7. Why is the problem you have tackled worth tackling?

8. Who has had the strongest influence in the development of your subject area in theory and practice?

9. Which are the three most important papers that relate to your thesis?

10. What published work is closest to yours? How is your work different?

11. What do you know about the history of [insert something relevant]?

12. How does your work relate to [insert something relevant]?

13. What are the most recent major developments in your area?

14. How did your research questions emerge?

15. What were the crucial research decisions you made?

16. Why did you use this research methodology? What did you gain from it?

17. What were the alternatives to this methodology?

18. What would you have gained by using another approach?

19. How did you deal with the ethical implications of your work?

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 In a single sentence please summarize your paper.  What is the singular idea on which your paper is based?  Why is the issue that you have chosen worthy of your thesis?  Cite the two most important sources for your work  How did you formulate your research questions?  Why did you choose this particular research methodology over others that were available?  What advice would you give to anyone undertaking a similar thesis?  What value will your research bring to others in your field?  Did you encounter any ethical issues during the course of your research and if so how did you get over this?  Do you intend to publish your work? If so, where?  Tell me a bit about your thesis - Prepare a 2–3 minute summary that you can parrot out to calm your nerves.  Why did you choose to study X? - This is potentially a personal question, so you may need to prepare an answer that you’re happy to share.  What are the limitations of the method you used? - Probably more common for STEM subjects, but may still be valid for arts and humanities.  Why did you choose to use X method over Y method? - A way of checking how well you know the literature, and weigh up advantages/disadvantages of methods.  If you were to continue your work (with no time/resource contraints), what would you do? - A PhD is never complete, and most students will have thought about what they’d like to do next. The two versions of the question can be revealing though, as they get at how carefully you’ve thought about it in terms of feasibility and/or creativity.  Taking into account the recent paper by X on Y, does this change your interpretation of your results? - Always a good way to check the student has been paying attention to current events in their field (although it would be valid to say that you hadn’t seen the paper and could they summarize), and how they incorporate new information/evaluate new evidence.  You’ve referred to X paper, can you tell me a bit more about it? - This probably doesn’t happen so often unless you’ve cited something that’s contentious for some reason. It’s an opportunity to be critical of the paper in a reasoned manner.  What are the contributions of your thesis? In what way does the research make an important contribution to the field of study?  What are the strengths and weaknesses of your research?  Did you face any problem while conducting the work? How did you negate those problems?  If you are told to redo your work, would you have done it differently?  Why did you choose this particular method for your study? What are the alternative methods that can be used to do this particular study?  What motivated you to take up this particular study? What was your research question or hypothesis?  What are the major findings of your research project?  What is the background research you did for your study?  Why is your work original and authentic?  What are the practical implications of your research?  1. Can you start by summarising your thesis?  2. Now, can you summarise it in one sentence?  3. What is the idea that binds your thesis together?  4. What motivated and inspired you to carry out this research?  5. What are the main issues and debates in this subject area?  6. Which of these does your research address?  7. Why is the problem you have tackled worth tackling?  8. Who has had the strongest influence in the development of your subject area in theory and practice?  9. Which are the three most important papers that relate to your thesis?  10. What published work is closest to yours? How is your work different?  11. What do you know about the history of [insert something relevant]?  12. How does your work relate to [insert something relevant]?  13. What are the most recent major developments in your area?  14. How did your research questions emerge?  15. What were the crucial research decisions you made?  16. Why did you use this research methodology? What did you gain from it?  17. What were the alternatives to this methodology?  18. What would you have gained by using another approach?  19. How did you deal with the ethical implications of your work?

 20. How has your view of your research topic changed?  21. How have you evaluated your work?  22. How do you know that your findings are correct?  23. What are the strongest/weakest parts of your work?  24. What would have improved your work?  25. To what extent do your contributions generalise?  26. Who will be most interested in your work?  27. What is the relevance of your work to other researchers?  28. What is the relevance of your work to practitioners?  29. Which aspects of your work do you intend to publish – and where?  30. Summarise your key findings.  31. Which of these findings are the most interesting to you? Why?  32. How do your findings relate to literature in your field?  33. What are the contributions to knowledge of your thesis?  34. How long-term are these contributions?  35. What are the main achievements of your research?  36. What have you learned from the process of doing your PhD?  37. What advice would you give to a research student entering this area?  38. You propose future research. How would you start this?  39. What would be the difficulties?  40. And, finally… What have you done that merits a PhD?  1. Why did you choose this topic? This might be the first question you will be asked, and you need to have a good response. You should talk about the motivations for the study. Talk about the research problem you wanted to address which made you embark on the study.  2. Briefly, explain what your research project is all about? To respond to this question, you need to fully understand your research project. Basically, be able to repeat your abstract.  3. What is the scope of the study Here you briefly state the specific aspects of your project topic that was covered  4. What is the significance of the study? To answer this question, you will need to state how your research work will help other researchers, educators, organizations(like the case study used), practitioners and policymakers.  5. Did you bridge any gap from your study? Here you should talk about how your study addressed the existing problems/concerns that made you carry out the research.  6. What are your research variables? This question is asked in order to find out if you really know what your research project is all about. Explain your independent and dependent variable(s) to show them you really grasp the concept of your research topic. Identify the variables in your project topic, define and explain them.  7. What research methodology did you use? This is usually the chapter three of your project report. To respond to this question, you should briefly state the research design procedure you adopted for the research. Talk about the data collection methods and sampling techniques employed in the research.  8. Why did you use that research methodology? This is where you state the reason(s) for the choice of research methodology used. For example, if you used the survey research method, you can state reasons such as: no interviewer bias, cost-effective, it enabled you (the researcher) to collect information from the sample without influencing the population of the study e.t.c  9. Why do you think your research is reliable? To answer this question, simply tell your audience/panel of assessors that the threats to research reliability (which are participants error, participant bias, research error, and researcher bias) did not occur during the research. Or you can simply say that you made sure the threats were reduced to the barest minimum.  10. Why do you think your research is valid? To answer this question, simply tell your audience/panel of assessors that the findings from your study can be generalized to other relevant settings, group or case study.  11. In what way(s) does your research project contributes to knowledge? This question is similar to your significance of the study. You should talk about how your research is aimed at addressing a problem that was not addressed by previous researchers in your field of study. You should also briefly state how your project will advance understanding in your research field.

Research Questions in defence, Thesis of English Literature

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