Every piece a PhD needs
A doctorate is not one enormous task. It is about thirty smaller ones, in a rough order, and most of the misery comes from not being able to see them laid out. Here they are — what each is, why it matters, and roughly how long it takes.
23 core pieces · about 24 months of focused work between them. Nobody does them strictly in order, and that is fine.
Work out what you are doing
Ends with: Ends at your proposal.
The problem
What is wrong with the world that your work addresses?
- A working title ~1 weekIt will change five times. Having one anyway is what stops a thesis being "my research" for three years.
- One-paragraph problem statement ~1 weekIf you cannot say it in a paragraph to someone outside your field, it is not defined yet.
- Why this matters nowoptional ~1 weekThe answer your examiner and every grant panel will want first.
The gap
What is already known, and where exactly is the hole?
- The 20 works everyone in this area cites ~4 weeksA bounded, finishable version of "read the literature", which otherwise never ends.
- Literature map — the camps and where they disagree ~3 weeksA gap is a disagreement or a silence. You cannot see either from a reading list.
- The gap, in three sentences ~1 weekTheoretical, methodological or empirical — name which, or the gap is just a feeling.
- Literature review draftoptional ~8 weeksUsually becomes a thesis chapter. Writing it is how you find out what you actually think.
The question
What question can you actually answer in the time you have?
- Two or three research questions ~2 weeksEach one narrow enough to answer with the time and access you actually have.
- What you are explicitly NOT doing ~1 weekThe single cheapest defence against a four-year scope creep, and examiners respect it.
- Research proposal ~6 weeksThe formal gate in most programmes. Everything above is its raw material.
Work out how you will do it
Ends with: Ends when you are cleared to start collecting.
The baseline
What are you compared against — and how would anyone know you beat it?
- What you are measured against ~2 weeksThe prior model, the standard interpretation, the current practice — name it explicitly.
- What "better" would look like ~1 weekDecided now, before the results exist, so you cannot move the goalposts later.
- Reproduce the existing result yourselfoptional ~5 weeksUntil you can reproduce what exists, you cannot tell your improvement from your bug.
The method
How will you produce evidence, and why can that method answer this?
- Method, and why this one ~3 weeksThe justification is examined as hard as the results.
- Pilot on a small sample ~4 weeksFinds the flaw that would otherwise cost you a year of collecting the wrong thing.
- Ethics approval / data accessoptional ~8 weeksThe classic hidden blocker. Approval boards run on their calendar, not yours.
- Data management planoptional ~1 weekWhere it lives, who can see it, how it is backed up. Increasingly a formal requirement.
Do it
Ends with: Ends when you have results you believe.
The evidence
What do you actually have to show?
The analysis
What does the evidence mean once you hold it against the baseline?
Land it
Ends with: Ends at your defence.
The contribution
What does the field now have that it did not have before you?
- Your contribution in one sentence ~1 weekThe sentence the whole thesis exists to earn. Write it early; rewrite it often.
- First paper submittedoptional ~12 weeksExternal review is the cheapest test of whether the contribution stands up.
- Present it to strangersoptional ~4 weeksThe questions you cannot answer are the holes in the argument, delivered free.
Writing up
Is the argument on paper in a form someone can examine?
- Chapter outline with one line each ~2 weeksA thesis is a sequence of claims. Get the sequence right before writing prose.
- One complete chapter ~8 weeksFinishing one end-to-end teaches you your own pace better than any estimate.
- Full draft, however rough ~24 weeksA complete bad draft beats three perfect chapters. It is the only thing you can revise.
- Full supervisor read + revision round ~8 weeksBudget it. Supervisors are slow and this always takes longer than anyone plans.
The defence
Can you defend it against the objections you already know are coming?