Writing a Watertight Thesis: A Guide to Successful Structure and Defence - Softcover

A clearly written, engaging and practical guide to students in completing their thesis at doctoral level. The authors' extensive experience of supervising and examining students at this level shines through clearly in the advice they give, the anecdotes they use and the practical suggestions put forward for a complete and successful thesis ... The book helps to make the mystery of "doctorateness" open and explicit as opposed to something discussed by examiners behind closed doors who have been heard to say "I know a doctoral thesis when I see one". * Jerry Wellington, Professor of Education, University of Sheffield, UK * This book will help the candidate develop an unassailable thesis structure. It is the only book I've ever read that approaches thesis-writing from a structural perspective, and it does so in a way that is clear and easy to apply. A must-have for doctoral students! * Mark A. Fabrizi, Associate Professor, Eastern Connecticut State University, USA * This book provides excellent information and support for doctoral students and supervisors about writing a truly watertight doctoral thesis. The authors draw on their extensive experience as doctoral supervisors and thesis examiners to distil wise advice about developing robust research questions, structuring thesis chapters and addressing examiners' requirements. Highly recommended! * Patrick Danaher, Professor, University of Southern Queensland, Australia * Bottery and Wright have produced a really helpful book for doctoral students. Using their expertise, developed over many years of working at doctoral level, this will be required reading for postgrads. I am sure any doctoral student will find this book full of excellent ideas that will help them to be successful. -- Megan Crawford, Professor and Director of Postgraduate Programmes, Research Centre for Global learning, Education and Attainment, Coventry University, UK The authors' rich experience of supervising doctoral students and examining doctoral theses and their understanding of students turn the book into one of the most readable. The contents covered are very close to students' needs. It helps students to understand, to plan, to structure, to write, and to publish in the whole "journey" of not only writing up watertight theses but also becoming competent researchers. -- Chang Junyue, Professor, Vice President, Dalian University of Foreign Languages, People's Republic of China

Writing a doctoral thesis can be an arduous and confusing process. This book provides a clear framework for developing a sound structure for your thesis, using a simple approach to make it watertight, defensible and clear. Bottery and Wright draw on their extensive experience of supervising and examining numerous doctorates from an internationally diverse and multicultural student body both in the UK and overseas, and include examples of how successful theses have been made watertight along with exercises to enable readers to do the same thing to their own thesis. The authors demonstrate how the key to making a thesis watertight lies in selecting the central research question and the sub-research questions that together collectively answer this main one. If these questions are well formulated the thesis can be defended successfully against criticism on structural grounds - a major part of the battle. Including chapters on the viva process, strength-testing your thesis and essential preparation for writing up your research, this is the resource for anyone looking to produce a well-structured, watertight piece of research.