Writing a Watertight Thesis

Book excerpt: Writing a doctoral thesis can be an arduous and confusing process. Writing a Watertight Thesis helps you to demystify many doctoral concerns and provides a clear framework for developing a sound structure for your thesis, making your thesis watertight, clear, and defensible. Now with the added experience of Mark A. Fabrizi, the authors draw on their extensive experience of supervising and examining numerous doctorates from an internationally diverse and multicultural student body around the world, including in Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, the UK and the USA. The chapters on preparing a research proposal, the viva process, and developing publishable articles out of your thesis have all been updated, and new chapters have been added to demystifying common concerns: Do I have what it takes to do a doctorate? What is doctoral originality? Is my work of doctoral quality? What kind of relationship should I cultivate with my supervisor/advisors? Throughout the book you'll find examples showcasing central research questions and the sub-research questions derived from them, descriptions of different ways that doctoral students have achieved success, and exercises that will enable you to apply what you are reading directly to your own thesis.