One of my post-viva corrections is the 'originality issue'. Not an extreme problem though - I simply need to emphasise the original points in a more distinctive manner.

I would love to hear from you, especially if your PhD is on a widely-researched topic where almost everything you can think off has been raised by someone else in previous scholarship. In that case, how did you get away with originality?

(Imagine... my topic is on human rights... everything you have ever imagined has been written about it... )

Also, how much novel theory does / did your thesis provide?

Maybe the post-viva members of this group would also like to provide some advice with the originality issue?

:-)

Hi Marasp! Glad to see you are bravely tackling your corrections!

Your PhD sounds wonderful - every PhD on human rights surely is a great contribution in light of the atrocities that are happening in all respects around the globe.

I remember when I was justifying ''my'' originality for the thesis, I was advised to consider why I am writing on the topic; what brought me to this point; what would I like to achieve. For me, coming from Moral Philosophy, it was important to pay homage to several conceptual oversights that I felt had been made in the debate I was critiquing even though the debate is very well-versed.

Thus, your own narrative can aid the originality justification too and make for an interesting read. Of course, frame it within an academic context and argumentation but certainly it is useful and valuable to place your own perspective - this will also help navigate the examiner's lens to where you want them to see your work both now and in the future.

It is quite an exciting correction to tackle at this stage - for I hope that it will reignite and sustain your motivation for the correction period when you are reminded of the importance of your work!

Hope that helps!

Oh, and as for how much novel theory does my thesis provide - well, that could be debated of course but it is difficult to argue against when you critically evaluate other contributions to the literature in line with your general thesis premise, and also clearly state in the introduction and conclusion what it is you are claiming to be original, and then the rest of the thesis is more or less an exploration of why it is original! Examiners are looking for originality thus clear statements will go down very well!