Who Will Be There?
In almost all cases, more people will be present than at your proposal defense. For thesis writers, the final oral defense features at least four participants: you and your three committee members. For dissertation writers, the smallest number of participants will be five: you, your minimum of three committee members, and the exam’s designated reader, who is appointed by the dean of the Graduate School. (In almost all cases, you won’t know who the designated reader is until you show up at your oral defense. For an official explanation of this non-voting faculty participant, see information at this link under “Designated Reader, Dean’s.”) Of course, you’ll likely invite friends and family members to experience the proceedings. But you should expect others to be in attendance as well. Both the Graduate School and your department will announce an oral defense of a dissertation ahead of time, and the event is open to all interested parties. Colleagues from your graduate program, former professors, and perhaps even people from other departments may be in the audience. Various public-speaking skills will no doubt come into play.
When
When it’s time to defend, you’ll know. Not only will you have a sense, as a writer, that the argument you advance in your document is suitable for public airing, but your director and committee members will have communicated to you that your work is ready to be defended. At least three weeks before the examination (a Grad School deadline), you need to submit a Request for Oral Defense of Thesis or a Request for Oral Defense of Dissertation. Note that the Graduate School also has several strict deadlines, including a deadline to submit the post-defense version of your thesis or dissertation. Ideally, schedule your defense more than three days before this deadline. That way you’ll give yourself ample time to make any needed changes to your document before submitting it electronically to the Thesis Office for final review. Your committee may request that you make changes during or after your examination. In addition, you may need to reformat your document so that it meets the Graduate School’s format requirements. (See Thesis Format Guidelines or Dissertation Format Guidelines.) Here in the Thesis Office, we often assist writers editing their documents during the post-defense phase. We strongly advise that you plan ahead so that you have more than three days to prepare your final copy.
How
Procedures during the 90 minutes or so of an oral defense vary slightly, depending on expectations of your department and committee. But, as noted in the Graduate School’s Quick Guide for Faculty (see “Defense, Oral”), all defense meetings consist of two main parts: an examination session and a public presentation with opportunity for Q & A. The order of these parts is determined by your department. Last year, when I attended a colleague’s dissertation defense in the Department of English, the candidate opened the meeting with an overview of her work (a presentation that lasted about 12 minutes). Then the examination began. Each committee member—as well as the designated reader, who came from the Department of History—asked probing questions about the dissertation’s content and its relation to other studies in the field. The session was formal and rigorous but never became overly tense. The Q & A was lively and enlightening, with questions from several colleagues and guests in the audience. The event was also “traditional,” in that each committee member was there in person. However, these days, it’s not uncommon for a “nontraditional” defense to take place, whereby one or more members participates via Skype or some other internet-based communications program. Here in the Thesis Office, we’ve recently become aware that such virtual participation is often unavoidable in fields like anthropology, in which faculty members and even degree candidates routinely spend extended periods of time away from campus to conduct field research. On this note: if your oral defense will require internet-based communications, you may wish to look into alternatives to Skype. For a recent list of such options, see this link.
Final Thoughts
Once you’re past the halfway mark on your big writing task, earnestly start thinking ahead to your defense. As soon as you start on the last segment of your document, get back in touch with your director to determine when to schedule the important day. Best of luck to each of you defending sooner or later—this summer and beyond!
