I’m going to share a little story about why I never delete words and instead cut them from a paper and put them in a memorandum elsewhere. My PhD advisor wanted a lean dissertation. He made me cut TWO CHAPTERS out of the freaking book (I was not happy AT ALL). Then...
At my PhD defense, external examiners started asking questions I (a) knew the answer to because (b) they were answered in those two chapters. The final version had to include both. I was like.
To note: I’m not bitter with my former PhD advisor. He suggested doing what he thought best. He had no way to anticipate external examiners questions (I did because well, once you finish a dissertation you ARE the expert in this field/topic, and I was). That’s also a signal.
Knowing that I needed to keep two chapters of my thesis despite my advisor’s objections signaled to me and to him I was ready to defend. We became colleagues, discussing the final structure of my dissertation, and negotiating its boundaries, outcomes and presented content.
At the defence, I basically aced it and afterwards he sent a congratulatory email to me cc’ing to his entire lab, acknowledging I had suggested keeping these chapters. Doing this meant the world to me, because he showcased humility and presented *me* as the expert in my field.
Which is why I am always excited when I get some pushback from my PhD students. It shows they’ve reflected and thought deeply about their topic and own their knowledge domain, and feel so confident in their knowledge they feel their decision is the right one.
To be clear, as well: I would never let a student of mine advance to defense if they weren’t ready nor would I let them make a decision that is clearly wrong that could derail their progress. But, you want to keep stuff/cut stuff? Ok, let’s see what the committee/externals say.
Anyhow, I cut the chapters, kept them and then reintegrated them for the final version. Never get rid of text, kids. I’ve written thousands of words that are now going into my book. </thread>
