What Is Dissertation Defense - How To Prepare

Giving a dissertation defense can be a haunting prospect for many students. In a way, it should signify that the hard work has been accomplished: writing a dissertation worth several thousand words. However, the fact that you are required to stand in front of many senior researchers in the topic area your dissertation is based on to defend and explain what you have produced can no doubt cause even the most confident of students to feel a little nervous and anxious.

The fear of being caught out, or being proven that what you have written is not true can be extremely nerving. Obviously, it is impossible to prepare for every single question you can be asked about a 200 page dissertation, however you can try and minimize mistakes on your behalf as much as possible. So, in this article, we will explain exactly how to prepare for your defense.

Underestimate

One of the most common mistakes that students make is to underestimate the amount of time it will take for them to produce their presentation. Firstly, make sure that you complete all your presentation slides well ahead of time, as it is very likely that you will be using a presentation based program to present your defense.

Once this is done, you need to memorize a large part of your defense, so you know what you are saying when you present your defense. To practice this efficiently, you need to give multiple practice talks. This point cannot be stressed enough. You should have enough practice that, by the time your real defense is to be presented, you should know the content of your presentation off by heart. It is best to continually practice by yourself and to present to a group of people to get accustomed to presenting to several people at once.

Examples

One of the best ways to prepare for a dissertation proposal defense is to listen to other talks. You should be able to find many dissertation defense online, which will give you a good insight into how you should be presenting your presentation, and other important aspects, such as body language and the tone of your voice.

If it is not possible for you to find a defense online, it may be wise to attend a public thesis defense, as your college or university will usually have a few that are open to the public. It is very important that you see at least one example of a good defense before you give your own.

Online Help

There is a lot of dissertation help available online, that can provide you with good tips to utilize for your defense. A dissertation assistant, for example, could help you by analyzing your body language and the content of your presentation.

We hope that this article has shown how you can better write dissertation to ensure that you give a top-notch defense of it. Remember to be well prepared for your presentation, and to see many good examples of defenses.