Why are vivas done? What is their purpose?
1. Wider Implications / Contribution to Knowledge
- Why is this topic important?
- Who is the research relevant to?
- What developments have been made in the field since the work began? Have these changed the research context?
2. Identify...
- Areas of weakness
- Elements of originality
- Contribution to knowledge
- Theoretical/research/practical implication of findings
- The overall argument and key findings
- The main finding- in one sentence
3. Context
- Has the relevance of the work been referenced?
- Why have I focused more on x and less on y?
4. Literature
- What 3 publications were most influential to this work?
- How does my work differ form theirs? Does it confirm/extend/challenge their work?
- What are the key names in the area?
- Who were the project's key influences?
- Where does your work fit into the literature?
- How did the literature impact the choice of topic/overall thesis?
- Where did I draw the line on what to include?
- What has happened in the field since the research? Is a further literature review required?
5. Methods
- How well did it work?
- Were there any data collection problems?
- Why did I choose this method and reject others?
- Any ethical issues?
- What other data would I have liked to collect?
- What are the data strengths and weaknesses?
- Summarise the research design
- How were the limitations determined?
- Were any novel methods used? Were existing methods developed on? Why?
- How did the research question develop and change?
6. Analysis and Findings
- Summarise the method of analysis
- Any problems with the analysis? Anything that wasn't included?
- Could the findings have been interpreted differently?
- How do the findings relate to the research questions?
- Was the collected data the most appropriate to answer the research question or could other data have been included?
- Induction/deduction?
7. Review
- What were the study's strengths/weaknesses?
- What sense did I get that research is a constantly shifting process?
- How confident am I in the findings and conclusions
- How has the context changed since the research began?
- How do I see this area developing over the next 5-10 years?
- Are the findings generalisable?
- How would I do further research?
- What would I like to publish? Which journal?
- What didn't I look at? Why?
8. Discussion
- If I was starting again, what changes would I make?
- How could the findings be interpreted differently?
- Of I was given new funding, how would I follow up?
- Compare work to published works. Where are the links?
9. Conclusion / Implications
- What do I hope will be taken further?
- How did the project change my view/way of thinking?What am I most proud of?
- What was the most enjoyable/difficult areas?
- How did the research change you as a researcher?
10. General Questions
- Prepare a 5-10 minute introduction to me, my work, my findings
- Why study this research topic/question?
- What was the most interesting/enjoyable part?
- How did my thinking about the topic develop as I went through the research process?
- Were there any surprises?
- Summarise the context/thesis in one sentence
- Does the title represent the context?
- How did I decide the thesis order?
- What justifies this thesis as an MSc thesis?
