Thesis error could it cost me my PhD? on PostgraduateForum.com

justagirl23345 29 posts
5 years ago

Hi guys,

I was reading my PhD thesis before the viva and realised that there’s a big mistake... when I sent the pdf copy of my thesis to the printers they couldn’t open it but everyone else could. Anyway they managed eventually and sent me a copy to check it was the same... I thought it was apart from one minor formatting thing... I was wrong... The symbols such as alpha and micro have been removed of my graphs.. This maybe affects 12. Figures in the Thesis... would it be enough to fail me?

E

eng77 385 posts
5 years ago

No it is not enough to fail. I bet the examiners have seen this. You could prepare a printed copy of the figures to the viva. Meanwhile you could email the internal examiner with the situation and the correct figures in a pdf or DVD. Or better go to his/her office with two copies of printer figures and tell him/her the story.

J

justagirl23345 29 posts
5 years ago

Quote From eng77:
No it is not enough to fail. I bet the examiners have seen this. You could prepare a printed copy of the figures to the viva. Meanwhile you could email the internal examiner with the situation and the correct figures in a pdf or DVD. Or better go to his/her office with two copies of printer figures and tell him/her the story.

Thanks, that makes me feel a bit better. Unfortunately, we are allowed zero contact with any of our examiners neither internal or external. At least it’s only parts of the graph titles so they are still understandable at least and I know the units of by heart. Hopefully it won’t be a problem.

T

Tudor_Queen 2097 posts
5 years ago

I don't think this can be viewed as a big mistake. It is clearly a printing error. Is it possible to infer meaning from the graphs without those symbols? I would raise it with supervisor in case he / she is allowed to have contact with the internal and could send them the correct PDF (that shows the symbols). Otherwise, all you can do is print them and bring them along to the viva. This is the normal course of action when one spots mistakes/errors in the thesis.

J

justagirl23345 29 posts
5 years ago

Quote From Tudor_Queen:
I don't think this can be viewed as a big mistake. It is clearly a printing error. Is it possible to infer meaning from the graphs without those symbols? I would raise it with supervisor in case he / she is allowed to have contact with the internal and could send them the correct PDF (that shows the symbols). Otherwise, all you can do is print them and bring them along to the viva. This is the normal course of action when one spots mistakes/errors in the thesis.

Now that I have had a coffee and calmed down a bit I have released you can thankfully for all of the figures understand what it going on. I checked the guidelines of the university and neither me nor my supervisor is unfortunately allowed any contact with the examiners except to organise the date because both of the examiners are external. I will just show them the correct version and hope they don't mind too much.

Thanks for the advice, its very much appreciated :)

J

Jamie_Wizard 130 posts
5 years ago

I think this sort of thing happens all the time and examiners know this. The involvement of technology adds another layer for something to go wrong.

At worst it could be minor corrections. I agree with Tudor Queen, it would be a good idea to list them and take this list into the Viva. This would reflect well on you if you did this.

You could also try contacting the admin who are communicating with the examiners and ask them if they can forward your list.

Good luck!

J

Jamie_Wizard 130 posts
5 years ago

I was typing when you responded so didn't see your last message.

I'm sure it'll be fine.

J

justagirl23345 29 posts
5 years ago

Quote From Jamie_Wizard:
I think this sort of thing happens all the time and examiners know this. The involvement of technology adds another layer for something to go wrong.

At worst it could be minor corrections. I agree with Tudor Queen, it would be a good idea to list them and take this list into the Viva. This would reflect well on you if you did this.

You could also try contacting the admin who are communicating with the examiners and ask them if they can forward your list.

Good luck!

Thanks for the reassurance :) I hope it will be fine. I am expecting minor corrections anyway because its rare no corrections and my examiners are new to doing vivas and are likely to be quite thorough.

P

pm133 1246 posts
5 years ago

Quote From justagirl23345:
Hi guys,

I was reading my PhD thesis before the viva and realised that there’s a big mistake... when I sent the pdf copy of my thesis to the printers they couldn’t open it but everyone else could. Anyway they managed eventually and sent me a copy to check it was the same... I thought it was apart from one minor formatting thing... I was wrong... The symbols such as alpha and micro have been removed of my graphs.. This maybe affects 12. Figures in the Thesis... would it be enough to fail me?

There is absolutely no way that this will be anything other than a minor tweak.
Make sure you go into the viva with post-it notes all over your own copy. Nothing impresses more than you being able to say "It's OK, I've got a fix for that. It should read xxx and I'll fix that as part of my changes".

J

justagirl23345 29 posts
5 years ago

Quote From pm133:

Quote From justagirl23345:
Hi guys,

I was reading my PhD thesis before the viva and realised that there’s a big mistake... when I sent the pdf copy of my thesis to the printers they couldn’t open it but everyone else could. Anyway they managed eventually and sent me a copy to check it was the same... I thought it was apart from one minor formatting thing... I was wrong... The symbols such as alpha and micro have been removed of my graphs.. This maybe affects 12. Figures in the Thesis... would it be enough to fail me?

There is absolutely no way that this will be anything other than a minor tweak.
Make sure you go into the viva with post-it notes all over your own copy. Nothing impresses more than you being able to say "It's OK, I've got a fix for that. It should read xxx and I'll fix that as part of my changes".

Thanks for the reassurance. I think I am going to do exactly what you said go in and admit my mistakes.

T

Tester 87 posts
5 years ago

I am arriving late to the discussion but I have sat through more than 20 vivas in various roles (examiner, supervisor and chair) and this sort of thing is very common. Nothing to worry about! Usually I would ask a question on it, you would confirm it’s a printing error, explain the figure and we would move on. That is then a quick correction post viva. Nothing at all to worry about! Good luck and try to enjoy the experience.

J

justagirl23345 29 posts
5 years ago

Quote From Tester:
I am arriving late to the discussion but I have sat through more than 20 vivas in various roles (examiner, supervisor and chair) and this sort of thing is very common. Nothing to worry about! Usually I would ask a question on it, you would confirm it’s a printing error, explain the figure and we would move on. That is then a quick correction post viva. Nothing at all to worry about! Good luck and try to enjoy the experience.

Thank you so much for the reassurance I feel so much more confident now :)