Steve Tippins offers seven tips for dissertation proposal defense: use bullet-point slides, respect your 25-minute time limit, practice repeatedly, master your methodology, arrive 15 minutes early for virtual defenses, speak slowly, and remember your committee wants you to succeed.
Hi. Today I want to talk about defending your dissertation proposal. At most schools, your dissertation proposal is the first three chapters of a dissertation. The introduction, literature review, methodology. This is where you have a meeting with your committee in order to present what you want to do in the study. They give you approval. Now, in that meeting, the first thing you want to think about in your PowerPoint presentation, which is typically what is used, more is not better. Don't cut and paste big sections of your proposal into a PowerPoint. You want bullet points. It allows you to stay on track, keep control. Because if there's a lot of words they can read faster than you can talk and you may lose them in the process. If you've been assigned a time limit or told take about 25 minutes, please pay attention to that. You don't want to come in with 48 minute presentation because they're going to get impatient. Break it down to just what is needed. Present that get through now. Know what the format is that your school uses. This can help you also stay with a time limit. But by knowing the format, the way to find that out, many times at your school, you might be able to see videos of past defenses that can be incredibly helpful. Talk to other students who've been ahead of you. Find out what they might have done. Once you've learned the format, the next thing you want to do, practice, practice, practice, practice. You want to have the committee think and know that you really know this material. Instead of just reading everything to them and getting fast, quickly to the end, practice. So it can seem almost like a discussion with your committee. You want to be able to sound professional during this. Okay, know what you're doing, that's part of the practicing. But know what's going on in your study. Understand the methodology. If there are words that can be a little confusing, you want to have practiced those. For example, phenomenology, that's one that trips people up a lot. Okay, now here's one many people don't think of because we're dealing with an online world in many cases now we're dealing with systems. And many schools use different schools use different systems. So when you get ready for your defense, you want to make sure you show up early so you can understand and get into the defense properly. You don't want to show up for your 11 o' clock defense at 11 o' clock and not get into 11:10. Then you've got people just waiting. Okay, show up 15 minutes early. Hey, if you have to wait five minutes, that's not a big deal. In the long run because if you show up and you're 15 minutes late and they've hung up, it could be another week or two before you reschedule, which can cost you a lot of time and money. Speak slowly during this, too, and I usually tell people to write down one word on their presentation that they're looking at. Breathe. That'll keep you slow. Now remember, your committee is not going to let you get to this stage unless they want to pass you, okay? So you can relax, but make sure you cover the material. Be respectful of your committee, but they do want you to move forward. If you're looking to complete your degree as quickly as possible, you might want to check into the scores of articles that we have over@BeyondPhDCoaching.com and if you really want to jumpstart your work, schedule a free appointment with one of our dissertation coaches or editors. All of our dissertation coaches are committee chairs and are ready to meet with you on a weekly basis. Thank you and good luck.
