Day 1 · Individual Activity · 15 minutes
Reading Your Own Writing Like an Examiner
How to use this
Work through this on your own. Choose whichever starting point fits where you're at — both lead to the same two sections below.
Have a draft chapter?
Open a recent piece of your own thesis writing — a literature review paragraph, a methodology section, or a findings extract, whichever you have most recently drafted.
Still early on?
Open whatever you do have — a confirmation document, a research proposal, supervision notes, or detailed notes towards your literature review.
What piece of writing are you looking at today?
Worth noting down — if you save this as a PDF and come back to it later, it's easy to lose track of which piece of writing it was about.
In this extract
Through the examiner's eyes
Reading just this page, does it feel like part of one connected argument, or could it be a stand-alone piece?
Even a short extract usually hints at whether it's plugged into a bigger argument or could be read on its own.
If an examiner formed their first impression from this piece of writing, what would they assume about the rest of your thesis?
Fair or not — first impressions shape how closely they read everything that follows.
What would you want them to notice first about this piece of writing?
The thing you'd point to if you could stand behind them while they read.
Where might they pause and think "I need more here"?
A gap, an unexplained jump, or a claim that needs backing up.
If someone outside your field read this page, what would confuse them?
Jargon, assumed knowledge, or context you haven't spelled out — anything a non-specialist would trip over.
If you had to cut this page by a third, what would go first?
This isn't really about word count — it's a quick way to spot over-explaining, hedging, or repetition you could trust the reader to do without.
One thing to share
What's one strength you're pleased to spot, or one gap you've noticed?
We'll go around quickly — just one thing each.
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