Authoring a PhD

(final) oral examination
– the stage when either the 
examiners
(in
Britain, Commonwealth countries or Europe) or the 
dissertation com-
mittee
(in the United States) formally discuss a student’s thesis with
them, raising issues and problems and testing their ability to defend
their argument and to discuss relevant questions in the academic 
discipline. Commonly called the 
viva
in British-influenced systems,
where it is held in private, and the 
dissertation defence
in the United
States, where most of the session is held in public. [pp. 216–26]
first-order subheading
– the heading for a main section inside a chap-
ter or paper. It is more prominent than a second-order subheading in
terms of font and location on the page. [p. 78]
focus down model
– a sequence for organizing a thesis that begins
with a long literature review, covering several chapters, during which
the scope of the study is progressively reduced, followed by set-up
material. The main analysis or evidence chapters thus arrive late on
within the thesis, and are typically followed by only a very brief analy-
sis and conclusions chapter. [pp. 53–9]
footnotes
– system of notes where the referencing materials and other
elements are given at the foot of the page where a note number occurs,
and not in a single bloc at the end of the chapter or book. [pp. 132–3]