Reboot Your Thesis Presentation & Defense! Examine Frank A Hilario’s Usual-Unusual “The 7 Deadly Scenes”

In his letter to his German friend Ferdinand Blumentritt, 02 October 1896, Philippine would-be National Hero Jose Rizal wrote: “Everything referring to my country interests me greatly.” Since 1959, my adopted country is Agriculture & Related Sciences, as I took the course BSA major in Ag Edu and graduated 1965; and since 1975, I have been travelling all over that adopted country; and since 1987, I have been much directly involved in digital editing and/or publishing technical materials from thesis to journals to books. Yes, “Everything referring to my adopted country interests me greatly!”

Today Wednesday, 26 April 2023, what interested me greatly was UPLB Dean of the College of Human Ecology Riki Sandalo’s Facebook sharing from the UPLB Learning Resource Center website (above image) of “10 Successful Thesis Defense Tips That Work” I was able to read only these 8:

(1)   Know the panel members.

(2)   Anticipate the possible questions.

(3)   Highlight important points in your study.

(4)   Talk at moderate speed.

(5)   Answer directly the questions and expound a little.

(6)   Be thoroughly familiar with the literature cited.

(7)   Apply the one-to-one correspondence.

(8)   Be grateful and open-minded.

Never mind. Below, I am presenting my own list.

Very different by coverage and counsel, based on my 48 years actual technology-rich experience as Editor: (1) typewriter-based editor at the Forest Research Institute (now ERDB) 1975-1986, and (2) digital-based editor 1987-today, including my being an unmatched one-man-band digital Editor in Chief of the Philippine Journal of Crop Science (PJCS), the publication that I brought singlehandedly from being late 3 years to up-to-date in 3 years – I worked double time – and in the next 2 years made it “ISI” (now “Web of Science”), a much-valued international list. WoW!

I call my list “The 7 Deadly Scenes” – Failure to come up with them may mean failed thesis defense or low passing grade.

“Deadly Scenes” – These are make-or-break thesis parts presented in texts & images for everyone to examine intelligently following international rules for publishable papers in journals. Thus:
(“Thesis Presentation” from behance.net)

1.     Field of study. Make the title suggest a picture; thus: “Growing XL Rice Via Commercial Organic Fertilizer Compared With Farm Compost And Chemical N Fertilizer.” Text & images.

2.     Relevance of study. Compare current costs & returns between organic and chemical rice farming. Text & images.

3.     Methodology. Describe experimental setups: where, when & how many days, how wide the plots etc. Text & images.

4.     Results. What happened in those setups in terms of harvests? Text & images.

5.     Discussion. Explain Results – not simply reword Results. Text & images.

6.     Conclusions & Implications. What new or revised pieces of knowledge showed up? What is their significance in research? Text & images.

7.     Recommendation/s. What now should be done by researchers and/or farmers? Text & images.

How well you succeed in your thesis defense depends on how much you know about your study in the first place: The Who, What, Where, When, Why and How. As simple – as complicated, as that!@517