The Final Examination (Oral Defense)

Ex. 6. Read the text and fill in the gaps with the correct word.

Ex. 6. Substitute the Russian words with their English equivalents from the box. See the exercise above.

Well, good, independent, irrelevant to the question, scant, basic, incoherent, satisfactory, clearly, convincing, lucidly, overly derivative, accurate, cogent, adequate, limited, erroneous, structured

1. убедительная, непоследовательная, несоответствующая [обсуждаемому] вопросу, самостоятельная, хорошо выстроенная, неоспоримая (аргументация) argument
2. недостаточное/ограниченное, слишком несамостоятельное/неоригинальное, ограниченное, хорошее (понимание) understanding
3. основное, адекватное, ошибочное (знание) knowledge
4. удовлетворительное, тщательное (цитирование) citation
5. хорошо, ясно, четко(написанная работа) written work

When the advisor believes the thesis is ready for preliminary approval, the student will distribute it to the thesis committee 1)……………….. (responsible, liable, chargeable) for overseeing the progress of the candidate's thesis. The advisor will designate the time and place of the oral defense and notify all members of the thesis committee. The oral defense should be 2)……………… (scheduled, appointed, prescribed) to allow a minimum of ten days for all members of the thesis committee to 3)……………….. (thumb, review, browse) the thesis. The final oral defense will be open to the university 4)…………….. (assemblage, fellowship, community). The student should provide copies of the abstract of the thesis to the Departmental Office so that it will be 5)………………….. (accessible, available, obtainable) to interested members of the Graduate Faculty prior to the oral defense to familiarize with the methodology and findings. The student will open the oral defense with a 6)……………………… (short, brief, little) presentation of his or her findings, after which the members of the thesis committee will 7)…………………. (ask, quiz, question) the candidate in an order determined by the advisor. Questions 8)………………… (concerning, related, dealing) with the substance, meaning and usefulness of the research in the thesis are of greatest 9)………………. (benefit, privilege, priority). When, in the judgment of the advisor, members of the thesis committee have had a/an 10)………………….. (adequate, reasonable, satisfactory) opportunity to questionthe student, the advisor may open the examination to non-committee members of the graduate faculty, then, as the advisor deems appropriate, to others present. Parliamentary procedure will be followed to 11)………………. (determine, qualify, identify) the success or failure of the student, with the advisor serving as 12)…………………… (facilitator, president, chair).

The student should be 13)…………………… (rated, evaluated, judged) upon both: the overall quality and significance of his or her thesis, and the oral defense of his or her findings. The student passes the oral defense and becomes a “candidate” for the degree if he or she passes with no more than one dissenting 14)………………. (poll, vote, voce). The advisor and members of the thesis committee will 15)…………………….. (ratify, sign, autograph) the Report of Thesis Final Examination form, and eachregisters his or her vote of “pass” or “fail.” [61]

Ex. 7. Are you afraid of being questioned during your oral defense? Read some advice of those who have already defended [62]. Discuss it with your partner and decide which of these items of advice are useful and which are not.

Ex. 8. Play out the same material in a form of a dialogue. Student A is defending his MA thesis in a day, and student B has already gone through it.

A: I am defending my MA thesis in a day and I need a good piece of advice from someone who has already gone through it, especially on Q&A session. I am rather nervous about it.

B: I defended two months ago. If your committee is like mine, they will try to ask you questions………………………..

A: What can I do if they ask me something I don’t know?

B: Yeah, it might be a problem. The biggest thing for me was how unprepared I felt for questions that I didn’t know the answers to. The best lesson I’ve learned from my master’s defense ………

A: Is it a good idea to say openly “I don’t know”?

B: The best advice I can give…………………….

A: Is there anything else you can suggest?

B: Don’t panic and don’t worry too much about it! It’s the only chance…………………

A: Thanks and wish me a good luck!

B: I’m sure you’ll pass! Don’t forget to bring a camera and take some pictures. It’ll be nice in 20 years to look back at them.

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