After more than a year of writing and correcting and editing, (not yet finally) I printed out my first draft of thesis 2 weeks ago for my supervisor to do the final check of the contents of my thesis. When I printed out the whole thesis and sent it to binding, suddenly it knocked me that - this looks like a thesis! I didn't know what to think but kept telling myself that there is still a long way before the end. I still need to wait for the corrections, make the corrections, send it for proof reading to check the grammar, spelling, etc., binding, submission, viva, corrections after viva (hopefully can skip this bit) and hard-binding. Yeah, still a long way to go.
When I gave it to my supervisor, he emailed me back and said that this looks like a thesis. And on the day when he returned me the thesis with corrections during a mini-viva session, he said it looks like a thesis and he read like a thesis. But the viva wasn't that good because I was not assertive and aggressive enough to explain my stances. So, need to work on that.
After corrected the thesis, I printed out everything including the title page, abstract, table of contents, appendices, etc. it then looks like a real thesis, only without binding. I posted it to a friend who can do a proper proof reading for me last week, inshaALLAH I'll see her this Friday to go through all the corrections. And after that inshaALLAH the thesis will be submitted. I am looking at either Monday or Tuesday of next week to submit the thesis.
What next? Really it depends on my sponsor. I either pack and go back to Malaysia and come back again for my viva which is scheduled on 12 May 2009 or I stay here until my viva and submission of the hard-binding thesis. My sponsor has not made any decision. This might be the last few days for me to be in the UK or I will stay on until my viva.
I would like to stay simply because it let me have more time and focus to prepare for my viva. I still have a lot to read and study before the viva because the viva is not just testing what I have written in my thesis but also what I should know about the field and the broader areas of the field. Yes, it is still a long way to go.
Wassalam.
