I received feedback from my advisor that there's a lack of confidence in the tone of my manuscript. I was taken aback, because I thought I was doing a good job of hiding how utterly terrified I am of facing the oral defense (viva). I didn't relieve how much it shows in my writing!

Without going into too many boring details, my degree is in the humanities, and the fieldwork didn't go as expected. At the same time (like many people on this forum) along the way on this PhD journey, a lot of challenging situations came up in my personal life, which rattled my self-confidence.

I really enjoy writing and data collection. In fact, writing is often a nice "escape." However, the thought of having to defend my ideas in front of a panel of experts is disconcerting. This may seem like a strange question, but how can I build up confidence in a short time in order to get through the defense without falling apart?

Hi Dalmation, it sounds like you just need to believe a bit more in your work. Research is rarely predictable otherwise why we'd be doing it if we know it already? But we always learn something from it. My results weren't what I was expecting either but I'm seeing it as 'ok, we know this isn't applicable, so what else can we learn from it? And where do we go from here?'. As long as you know that you did the best possible, you're able to convey why this is so to the panel, you should be ok. I think? I've not had mine yet but I'd imagine others may be able to help as well?

I'm anxious about my viva too (and a little scared if I'm honest!) if that helps but I'd expect many of us on the same boat to be feeling the same;-)

I have been told that on occasion too and am worried in the viva that I won't defend strongly enough. I intend talking myself up big time in the mirror in the days before - 'you can do it', 'it is good enough' etc etc. I hope, that come the viva, for those 2-3 hours or so, that the thesis will be all I focus on and defend it for all I am worth.

That's the plan...

Good luck Dalmation - yes you can(up)