10.3 Polishing Your Ph.D. Thesis

After you have consulted your supervisor following your reassessment of your thesis, you should concentrate on refinements that will make your thesis the best it can possibly be before your final submission.

First of all, implement any final changes that your supervisor has suggested and show your supervisor the result. Even if this means more rewrites, do them, it will be worth it in the end.

Laborious as it might seem, you need now to proof-read your thesis. You can enlist the aid of an accommodating friend or colleague to help you with this exacting task if you can find someone with the time and skill to do it! It is much easier to proof-read in stages so if possible, read through every chapter as it is finished but even then you might need a final proof-read because you are constantly rewriting.

Of course, you may be employing a professional typist to complete your work. If you do decide to take this option, ensure that you employ someone who works at the college or university where you are conducting your research because if not, your typist may be unfamiliar with the required procedure of the academic institution and it will end up taking you more time to get things right than if you had typed your Ph.D. thesis yourself.

Increasingly, in fact, students do type their own Ph.D. theses partly because the thesis has been prepared on a computer initially and therefore there is no need for it to be transferred to type by someone else. Also, there is the issue of cost. Most students today are on an even tighter budget than in the past so typing your thesis yourself can be a very welcome saving, especially since you have been struggling financially for a number of years by this stage of your doctorate, unless you are fortunate enough to have had sponsorship.

Whoever types the final version of your thesis you need to bear the same points in mind. The importance of these final checks cannot be overestimated as foolish errors at this stage can make or break your thesis: at best, it will mean more changes at worst it could mean failure of the thesis when it is finally examined.

You need to follow through a final checklist in order for your doctorate to meet the required publication standard of any thesis approved at this level: quite simply, only the best will do.