Hi everyone,

So I've just completed the final, corrected, post-viva, ready-to-submit-to-library version of my thesis and had my corrections approved by the internal examiner, and sent it to be hard-bound. Unfortunately, while scrolling through earlier (I'm developing one of my chapters into a conference paper), I discovered a tiny, but not insignificant error - basically I have a rogue footnote, less than one-line long, that I added as a 'note' to myself while correcting the thesis and intended to either remove or develop. Of course, I completely forgot about it, and now that the thesis is at the binders (it needs to be deposited on Thursday) I can't do anything about it. It's not catastrophic, but it looks really sloppy and won't leave a good impression on anyone reading the work. I'm kicking myself for not noticing, and I can't believe my internal didn't spot it either. My corrections were really very minor so I think she mostly just skim-read.

As I can't reprint and re-bind the thesis in time, what should I do? Should I inform the library of the mistake and include a 'errata' pull-out, 'black out' the line with a marker pen before I give it in (it'll look ugly but at least the mistake will be hidden) or just hand it in and hope that no-one notices, since who is going to be reading my thesis anyway, right?

Have emailed my supervisor for her thoughts as I can't find anything in the university regulations about such an eventuality - of course they assume that the final version is error-free! Any suggestions/comments/offers to slap me in the face with a wet fish for not checking carefully enough appreciated...

Nobody will notice. Draw a line on it if you like. I have seen far worse mistakes than this on theses.

Just ignore it. I doubt there are many theses that get through to final binding that don't have mistakes. It's normal to find mistakes in your thesis years afterwards! If you cross it out you will only draw attention to it. Just forget about it.

One way of looking at is that it gives your work a human touch. The only people who may notice it will be the handful of PhD studentds or researchers who need to read your thesis cover to cover

Yes my husband commented it might make a reader smile! But I doubt many PhD students reading cover to cover would even notice. Not everyone reads every single footnote, even when reading a thesis otherwise thoroughly.

Would careful use of correction fluid or a Tipp-Ex strip not do the job?

Thanks for all the responses, guys... it's a relief to see that most people are a lot more laid back about this than I am! After all the time I spent perfecting the formatting it's so annoying to find a tiny mistake still in there!

kelpie, my supervisor has suggested I Tipp-Ex it out which I may well do if I decide I can't bear to look at it. Picking it up tomorrow so I will decide then I suppose...

Tippex out very carefully and ensure said footnote is not in PDF version for electronic repository.

I can't say very much as I bound the wrong version of my thesis for the library copy (i.e. the uncorrected version that I was viva-ed on), a mistake I only realised after it had been submitted. No-one will ever look at it so I basically don't care.

The electronic repository one which people do look at is the correct(ed) version though.

Ian