Value-added/ Originality
CHECKLIST: TOP TEN VIVA QUESTIONS
1. What are the most original
parts of the thesis?
2. Which propositions would you
say are distinctively your own?
3. How do you think you work
takes forward or develops the literature in this field?
4. What are the “bottom line”
conclusions of your research? How innovative or distinctive are they?
Origins/Topics
5. Can you tell us how you came
to choose this topic for your doctorate?
6. Why have you defined the topic
in the way you did? What were some of the difficulties you encountered and did
they influence how the topic was framed?
Methods
7. What are the core methods used
in this thesis? Why did you choose this approach? In an ideal world, are there
different techniques you’d have liked to use?
Data
8. What are the main sources or
kinds of evidence? Are they strong enough to sustain the conclusions you draw?
9. How do your findings fit with or contradict
the rest of the literature in this field?
What next?
10. What are the main
implications of your research for the rest of the field?
