This guest post is by Sue Starfield who is an associate professor in the School of Education and the Director of the Learning Centre at UNSW Australia, as well as co-author with Brian Paltridge of Thesis and dissertation writing in a second language: A handbook for supervisors. Sue teaches courses in thesis writing for doctoral students and runs workshops for supervisors on ways they can help their students with their writing. If you like Sue’s blog, you may also enjoy Susan Carter’s recent post on the examiner perspective.

By Sue Starfield

Students and supervisors are often surprised when I talk to them about the research into what examiners look for in a PhD thesis. Almost apologetically, I’ll explain that it’s an area of growing interest. John Swales, the well-known applied linguist, coined the phrase ‘occluded genres’ to describe genres that are not publically and easily available. The PhD examination…