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Submitted PhD and typos!

R

Just submitted PhD and can already see some typos I missed - please tell me this is normal - now panicking and thinking 'I am doomed'!

H

Don't panic! Most people do the same. Just make a table and enlist in it all your typos, which page they are on, and take it with you to the viva.

M

If typos are your only problem then congratulations :)

R

Ha ha sadly I somewhat doubt typos are the only issue...

D

very common issue! not crucial although looks bad if there are hundreds...

C

I found 180 or so typos in mine. Examiners spotted about 5!

I brought a list to the Viva in case they mentioned that there were a lot of errors (they didn't) and then corrected them before the final submission.

Have still since found a couple more errors in the final version!

S

I know this is a silly question - but I don't mind being mocked for it - are we talking technical lingo typos here?

H

I had multiple typos, plus a sentence that trailed off to nothing (I'm still not sure whether I failed to finish writing it or it was victim to a copy-paste-editing shuffle) plus a weird page numbering/printing glitch that to this day I cannot find a logical explanation for.

Examiners picked up on some of the typos and asked for correction (but not the missing text!), and I corrected the rest myself.

It's not a major issue by itself, but if the thesis has other substantial issues then it might tip the balance of opinion to the unfavourable end of the spectrum. But only a very picky examiner would make a big deal of a thesis where typos were the only main issue.

I think the danger is, that too many typos looks like sloppiness, and once their attention has been drawn, they want to know the breadth of the said sloppiness, and whether it is indicative of a greater intellectual sloppiness.

S

But what about Spellcheck? You may all mock me.

There, their, they're :)

H

Yes, many typos are correctly spelled words, albeit the wrong one.

I know of one person who was in the middle of printing before they noticed a place were "public health" had an unfortunately absent first 'l'.

Also, it's easy to turn a blind eye to the red squiggly line when it is picking up every technical word.

C

I haven't started re-reading mine yet but I know I'll find a fair few typos despite myself and several other people finding plenty in earlier drafts which were then corrected! I'm probably a victim of that intellectual sloppiness haha. Almost everyone I've known has gone to their viva with a list of typos they have found so that if the examiners point it out you can say you have found it already. I also know plenty of people who found lots and their examiners didn't notice them (or at least didn't mention them) so I wouldn't worry too much.

A

It's amazing how many typos/mistakes you make and don't realise. I walked into my suprvisor's office once and the first thing he said was "do you know when and where to use apostrophes?"
Me "I thought I did until you said that"
He then handed me a sheet of how to use apostrophes accompanied by an uncovincing "don't worry - it's a common mistake".
I read the hand out but I knew it.. I really did.. reread a couple of chapters of my dissertation and I had made the most basic mistakes! I felt like I should be learning GCSE English Language not a MSc.

C

I had a similar situation AOE26 but with tenses, when I'm writing I just flit between past and present tense without even realising. I knew I had to write in past tense, and I thought I had, but I clearly hadn't, it drove my supervisor mad. I ended up just finding and replacing all the 'is' to 'was' etc..

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