What is Thesis 360°?
Thesis 360° is a unique, cohort program designed to support late-stage PhD candidates as they navigate the final stages of the doctoral journey, i.e., finalizing the thesis so it is ready for the initial thesis submission and working towards the oral defence.
What can this program do for you?
We designed Thesis 360° because we recognize that finishing a doctoral degree requires meeting unique intellectual, psychological, and logistical demands as you transition from a doctoral candidate to an apprentice scholar.
Thesis 360° provides structured support to help you break down seemingly overwhelming tasks into manageable goals, address committee feedback by organizing and prioritizing changes, navigate formatting and submission guidelines, and prepare for the oral defence. The program will also encourage you to maintain your motivation and combat late-stage isolation through discussions, working lab meetings, mini-mock presentations, and dedicated peer-review sessions. We will also provide you with a better understanding of existing McGill Writing Centre (MWC) support, such as Graphos workshops, writing commons, and tutorial services, so you can leverage these resources along the way.
Program Design
To assist you as you approach crossing the doctoral finish line, our program is structured around three core pillars:
1. Writing & Revising Processes
• You will learn how to organize and prioritize feedback; streamline your revision process to systematically address supervisor comments; and reverse outline chapter drafts and establish chapter-level transitions to improve local and global coherence.
• We will discuss abstracts, acknowledgements, and thesis conclusion chapters as unique genres that often rely on specific rhetorical moves that you may use to draft or revise these sections of your thesis or dissertation.
• You will have an opportunity to give and receive feedback on your writing, identifying typos and formatting issues, and improving clarity and concision before your initial submission deadline.
2. Oral Communication & Defence Preparation
• You will learn tips for distilling your research into a well-organized and engaging 20-minute presentation; strategies for identifying potential committee questions; and techniques for understanding and responding to committee questions.
• We will discuss the importance of metacognitive awareness, which you will practice developing during group activities to prepare you for demonstrating such awareness during your defence.
• You will also have opportunities to practice responding to questions about your research and participate in mock defences.
3. Accountability & Community Support
• You will be provided with backwards planning and supervisor-supervisee communication tools that will help you manage your time and coordinate with your supervisor(s) to develop a feedback-revision schedule.
• We will address questions you may have about myThesis, submission requirements, and defence logistics to ensure that you understand the submission and defence processes and are aware of existing supports.
• You will benefit from weekly in-person sessions that will help maintain your schedule and combat late-stage isolation. The sense of community that we will build together through Thesis 360° is important because shared experience is central to completing and celebrating milestones.
Thesis 360° is meant to compliment current MWC support. As you work your way through the program, you will be encouraged to leverage existing support by participating in writing commons sessions, attending Graphos workshops, booking one-on-one writing consults with MWC tutors, and scheduling appointments with MWC presentations tutors. Collectively, MWC’s offerings and Thesis 360° will help keep you motivated while completing pre-submission revisions and preparing for your oral defence.
Eligibility and Expectations
Because this program is highly specialized, it is restricted to late-stage PhD candidates who meet the following criteria:
• All major thesis/dissertation chapters must be drafted prior to the start of the program. Thesis 360° writing activities will focus strictly on revisions, formatting, and polishing. This program is not for those still conducting primary research. Although we recognize that completing revisions may require additional reading or searches of the literature, such activities should be completed on students’ own time, not during Thesis 360° sessions.
• Candidates must commit to attending mandatory, full-day program sessions and weekly “Working Lab” sessions. Full-day mandatory program sessions will be held from 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. and include:
1) a two-day Orientation & Welcome Session | Thursday, 1 & Friday, 2 October;
2) a one-day Mid-Program Session | Friday, 6 November, and
3) a one-day Capstone Session| Friday, 4 December.
Working Labs will be held on Wednesdays from 1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. (Note: there will be no Working Lab on Wednesday, 14 October due to Fall Reading Week.)
All sessions will be held in person.
• In alignment with McGill’s commitment to academic integrity, candidates much adhere to ethical scholarly communication protocols. It is the responsibility of students to ensure that any use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools within the program strictly comply with official academic unit and university guidelines on research ethics and authorship.
• Candidates must agree to respect the intellectual property of their fellow Thesis 360° cohort members and signal this agreement by entering their name in the confidentiality and accountability agreement section of the application form.
• Candidates must submit a completed Supervisor Approval Form alongside their program application.
Program Schedule
• Thursday, 1 October & Friday, 2 October | 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
• Wednesday (weekly), 7 October – 2 December | 1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
(Note: There will be no Wednesday session on 14 October due to Fall Reading Week.)
• Friday, 6 November | 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
• Friday, 4 December | 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Application Process
Due to the intensive, cohort-based nature of Thesis 360°, space in the program is limited. We seek a dedicated group of candidates who are ready to actively engage with their peers and program facilitators. Before applying, please ensure that you meet all eligibility criteria and can commit fully to mandatory sessions and weekly activities.
Admission is based on the current status of your chapters (i.e., having at least full drafts of all chapters), supervisor approval, and a demonstrated commitment to actively participating in and completing the full program. Priority will be given to those planning on an initial submission of December 2026 or early winter 2027.
To apply:
1. Complete the online Thesis 360° Application Form by 10 September 2026.
2. Share the Supervisor Approval Form with your supervisor and have them complete it by 14 September 2026.
Please note, it is your responsibility to familiarize your supervisor with Thesis 360° and ensure that they submit the Supervisor Approval Form by the deadline.
Disclaimer
We are committed to working with diverse late-stage doctoral candidates, including those who use GenAI within the guidelines of their individual academic units, and we trust writers to take responsibility for working ethically within those guidelines. Our program facilitators and writing consultants, however, are not obligated to use or discuss the use of GenAI.
While we empower writers to choose whether they disclose GenAI use to us, we encourage transparency for the sake of collaborative and productive consultations. We do not disclose writers’ GenAI use to anyone outside the McGill Writing Centre without writers’ permission.