Things that Can Make a Supervisor Reject Your PhD Thesis

Being a PhD supervisor is a privilege but stressful as well. Examining PhDs is a joy to nurture for helping the next generation of the academy but is also a moment to regret when the supervisor realizes that the thesis is quite below international standards of research. Here are two things that can make the supervisor feel so!

First is a shortened, poorly written bibliography that can distress the supervisors. Did you know that most supervisors start examining the paper from the back for judging the caliber of research references? The moment more than 20 anomalies in the form of incomplete, missing, or mismatched references are spotted; the examiners have no option but to doubt the academic ability of the writer.

Second, the usage of generalized phrases such as ‘a few universities’ or ‘all men’ without explanatory citations or statements can put off the supervisors. Invariably there exists a relation between a too many generalizations and thin bibliography. In case the writer has not researched or read extensively, the generalizations will be more, which automatically leads to small bibliography. An ideal thesis is the one that is tightly written but justifies the author’s focus on a specific community of experts over others while showing that enough has been read to prove their paper contents.