Writing the PhD thesis and organizing the defense#

PART I: writing the thesis#

This part is the most work, and it should be completed before you can turn to any of the formal actions of arranging the defense, so start in time.

  1. Writing the introduction: Wrap your papers together, and decide what is the connecting storyline. Sometimes, chronological order isn’t the best way to order your papers to make the best connection. Once you’ve figured out the story, you can come up with a title and write an introduction to introduce the reader to the most important concepts/players of the story. You should try to keep it concise: all too detailed information can wait for the actual papers, and all too general, textbook-like information people already know or can find on the internet without effort. For me, it took roughly a month of full-time work to write the introduction.

  2. Summary and Propositions: The next two parts to work on are the summary and propositions. The summary takes some effort to write, since it should be short and concise and at the same time cover the complete story of your thesis. For the propositions: during the weeks I worked on the introduction and summary, I wrote down as many possibly interesting propositions as I could think of. This gives you the chance to later pick the best ones (that are both defensible and opposable). Don’t forget to translate your summary and propositions to Dutch!

  3. Remaining parts: Finish with writing the last parts of your thesis: title page, CV, list of publications, and if you want, acknowledgments. Here you can save a lot of time by copying standard parts/templates from people who did this before you.

PART II: arranging everything for the defense#

The second part has not much to do with content, but all with formally arranging the defense. It might be useful to take a look at the schemes on the TU Delft Graduate School website. However, I noticed that no one really cared about all the times/deadlines that are mentioned there.

  1. DE program: Before starting the procedure to get a defense date, make sure that you have completed the necessary amount of graduate school credits. You must then contact the faculty graduate school (i.e. the TNW graduate school, not the university graduate school) and ask them to verify that you’ve completed the DE program.

  2. Form B: The form you need to start the formal procedure to get a defense date is Form B (you can find all these forms again on the Graduate School website). After your supervisor performed the plagiarism check and signs the form, you send the form, your thesis, propositions and a separate document containing just the title page of your thesis (for some reason the GS puts great emphasis on the title page) to the GS (the university GS, not the TNW one). When the TNW GS has verified your completion of the DE program and the university GS has approved your thesis, you will be invited to call the university GS to get a provisional defense date.

  3. Form C and committee: After you get a provisional defense date, you discuss with your supervisor/promotor who will take place in your committee and let the supervisor approach these people. The GS reserves your defense date for one week, so you have a week to get confirmations of your committee whether they will attend your defense or not. After that, you fill in Form C (with information on all the committee members), and let your supervisor sign and send it to the GS. If all goes well, the GS then fixes your defense date.

  4. Committee feedback: After this, the committee members have a certain time (something like 3 weeks, the exact date is sent to you by the GS) to suggest changes to your draft thesis. After you receive it, you have some time to improve your draft. Also, if you want to improve your draft yourself in the meantime, that’s also fine, as long as it is more on the layout/writing style side and not on the content, because that should be known to the committee.

  5. Form D: After everybody is happy with your thesis, you fill in Form D, get your promotor’s signature, and send it to the GS. This is the last form you need for the defense.

  6. ISBN: Apply for an ISBN number for your thesis. You can do this by contacting the university library.

You now have your final thesis and can continue to printing. Keep in mind that printing, depending on your choices, takes between 3 and 6 weeks in total, so make sure you have your final thesis version in time.

PART III: printing#

Printing your thesis is the final stage of the process. Again, since the whole process takes can take 3 to 6 weeks and you also need some time to distribute them to everyone, start in time.

  1. Choose printing company, decide on the cover: Choose your printing company. Many people go with Gildeprint, and I have good experiences with them. I attended one of their information meetings, which was useful, but it’s not necessary. They have a good website and you can always call or email them for help. For the cover, there are three options: design something yourself, let Gildeprint design something for you, or let an external designer do it. The first option is good if you have a clear idea and some proper Python or Inkscape skills (or some other drawing software), calculate the spin thickness here. The second option doesn’t cost extra, but the options are limited: Gildeprint can make something out of a picture you give them or design some simple geometric cover, but not something more advanced. I came in to contact with an external designer via Gildeprint, who designed a cover, based on my idea, for € 200. This is an option if you want a cool, unique cover and if you have somewhat more time (for me, the design process took another 2-3 weeks). Also, make sure how much of the costs you get refunded to avoid paying a huge bill yourself afterward.

  2. Further printing options and the printing itself: There are many possibilities for printing: the type of paper, layout design, number of copies, etcetera. For the layout: if you use the standard TU Delft latex template for your thesis it’s already in good shape. For all other options, usually the default option of the printing company is pretty okay, you can always ask other PhD’s or the printing company for advice. If everything is decided, you receive a test copy via normal mail a couple of days later, and if you’re okay with that the printing starts. This all went rather smooth and fast for me.

PART IV: last things to do#

Once you receive your printed thesis, there’s a number of minor things to do. Send a copy of your thesis by mail to your non-TU Delft committee members and bring them to the ones that are close by. Also, of course, hand out your thesis to colleagues, family and friends. Make an appointment with your committee chairman to bring him/her a copy and discuss the defense a bit. Also, bring copies to the secretary (for the TU Delft administration), the GS (to be found in the Jaffalaan administration building) and possibly to your employer if you are employed e.g. by NWO-I instead of TU Delft. Finally, work on the layman’s talk a couple of days before the defense. Focus here on friends and family, not on your colleagues, since they know already quite well what you have been doing over the years. I found giving the layman’s talk very helpful during my defense: after talking to your audience for 15 minutes, starting the actual defense is much less scary and feels rather natural.

Then there is, of course, the rest of your defense day that you might want to organize: reception, dinner and drinks (to arrange dinner and drinks you probably need to reserve much more in advance). Remember that it is possible to use the TU Delft catering (Cormet) for the reception after the defense. In one of the emails you receive from the GS, you find a form to arrange this.

A few days before the defense send an announcement to QN theory, QN experiment, and QuTech mailing lists, and repeat it on the day of the defense.

And, of course, read your thesis in preparation of the defence!

Good luck!