Defending the M.A. Thesis

[SusieQ]

Hi all!

I am defending my Master's thesis in a couple of weeks and I've chatted with the chair of my committee about their expectations regarding thesis format/structure. They were extremely vague about the format and when asked if utilizing power point would be allowed, they said no. Can anyone give me some pointers, especially those those who didn't use PPT or other visual aids? I've scoured the university's webpages, looking for any formal written expectations but found nothing. I've been reading quite a bit online about the general guidelines for a successful defense and I've been keeping up with my literature, however, it definitely helps to hear from others who have gone through it already! (I was intending to go to some of my peers' defenses, but I had a serious illness that precluded me from doing so) Thanks for your help in advance!

[cultureisordinary]

I defended my thesis this morning and really had no idea going in what to expect (I think this is a common experience). The committee asked me to summarize my thesis in ~10 minutes. The rest of the time was devoted to questions/comments from them about possible objections/counter-arguments to particular aspects of my argument and about methodological limitations.

Despite being clueless about what to expect, I still managed to pass with distinction, so I wouldn't worry too much. The best way to prepare would probably be to practice giving an oral chapter-by-chapter summary of your work and to consider potential objections to and limitations of your work and your response to these charges.

Of course, I don't know if my experience is standard or if different programs/departments/schools do things differently, so you might want to contact some of your peers that have recently defended in your program and find out what their experience was like.

Hope this helps!

Hi all!

I am defending my Master's thesis in a couple of weeks and I've chatted with the chair of my committee about their expectations regarding thesis format/structure. They were extremely vague about the format and when asked if utilizing power point would be allowed, they said no. Can anyone give me some pointers, especially those those who didn't use PPT or other visual aids? I've scoured the university's webpages, looking for any formal written expectations but found nothing. I've been reading quite a bit online about the general guidelines for a successful defense and I've been keeping up with my literature, however, it definitely helps to hear from others who have gone through it already! (I was intending to go to some of my peers' defenses, but I had a serious illness that precluded me from doing so) Thanks for your help in advance!

[rising_star]

SusieQ, has anyone in your department ever defended their MA thesis? If so, ask them what they did to prepare and what happened during it.