SOME TIPS ON PROPOSAL AND THESIS DEFENSE

Proposal Defense meeting is an opportunity for student (or researcher) to present to

faculty members the plan for proposed research. There are many reasons for doing this
as explained in the Research Proposal Writing module. It is an important session for the
student to explain what the proposed research is about, why it should be done and how
it will be done. It is a learning forum and something of interest to both the student and
faculty because any research targets new knowledge or new solution to a nagging
problem. Besides, the student learns from the more experienced researchers as they
give their inputs for the improvement of quality of the proposal – an important aspect
that enhances ownership of the work by the faculty and entire university. The final
product, thesis, will be property of the university.

In most cases, your work will have been read by the faculty panel members who have
then marked the sections on which they will seek clarification during defense, areas that
need to be improved and questions to be posed to ascertain your command or mastery
of the work. However, most of the questions will emerge spontaneously during the
meeting. As a student, this forum serves to enhance your presentation skills and ability
to field questions, thus preparing you for the final stage, which is oral examination of
thesis. These are crucial skills that will help in the subsequent life-long process of
researching and presenting at various fora, including conferences.

Due to the importance of defense, we provide the following hints as a guide to both
proposal and thesis presentation.

1. Master the content of your proposal or thesis. Recall the works of the main
authorities that helped shape your study. Knowledge of the main theories,
previous findings and the genuine knowledge gap that your study aims to fill or
has filled is critical. You should be able to accurately describe the work from the
title to appendices.
2. Think through all the areas that might raise controversies or generate debate.
Then prepare credible answers for the same, based on your study and supportive
literature. But remember, it is not enough to provide satisfactory answers to questions
raised about your proposal or thesis, but the answers should be traceable from the work
itself. That is, complete work should answer for itself all the questions within its scope.
That means, you need to read your work severally and with a critical mind to identify
and tie the loose ends before you submit it for defense.
3. For a research proposal, your presentation should focus more on the background and
methodology - basically the sections covered in the abstract and a little on literature
review, particularly the sections exposing knowledge gaps.
4. For a thesis defense, background information is still important; however, you should
dwell more on the findings, focusing on the results in relation to the objectives. What
answers to the questions has the research generated? What are their implications?
What are the conclusions? What are the recommendations for further research? What

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 were the policy recommendations (recommendations for practice)? Recommendations
should not be far-fetched but derived directly from the findings of the study.
5. Have confidence in your work. It has to raise more questions than it can answer;
that is a characteristic of a good research. Some of the questions you will be
asked have direct answers in the work but are posed just to check whether you
are aware of this. Others are asked for the purpose of seeking better
understanding of your report. Yet others are genuine concerns that your report
should address. Do not defend something that is obviously false; but admit
gracefully and note it as a point for correction. In fact, the right word to describe
the exercise is presentation rather than defense.
6. Prepare suitable slides for presentation; but do not over-depend on them. Print
out slides for use just in case technology fails at the critical hour. Your
presentation should flow in the order: background information, problem of the
study, justification for study area, and so on as they are in the abstract.
Remember to give a powerful but accurate summary of each of the components
of the abstract in your own words and within 10-20 minutes.
7. Do not read word for word during presentation, as this would make it doubtful
whether you actually carried out the research.
8. Be sure you can reasonably satisfy the panel on questions regarding:
(a) Problem of the study
(b) Justification for the study area
(c) Link between objectives and the title, purpose, literature review (and gaps),
design and instruments
(d) Theoretical and conceptual framework
(e) Design of the study
(f) Study Population
(g) Sample and sampling technique
(h) Validity of the instruments: whether they generated relevant and adequate
data with reference to the objectives
(i) The links between all components of the work
(j) Independent and dependent variables, where they apply
(k) Extraneous or confounding variables and provisions to minimize their effects
(l) The analysis and interpretation of findings
(m) Answers to the research questions
(n) Implications of the findings
(o) Conclusions drawn
(p) How your study has contributed to the discipline
(q) Recommendations and their link with the findings

Items 8(m) to (q) apply to thesis only.

Try to ensure chain links running from the first to last page of the document.

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