The question that drove me mad
When I was writing my PhD, my supervisor had a favourite comment. It appeared in the margins of almost every chapter I handed in, usually next to a paragraph I was rather pleased with. Two words. So what?
I hated it. I’d spent weeks on that blimming literature. I’d read the papers, made the notes, got the citations right and built what I thought was a careful, thorough review. And there it was again – so what? Why are you telling me this? Why does it matter to your research? I remember sitting at my desk thinking, well, obviously it matters, or I wouldn’t have put it in.
It took me an embarrassingly long time to work out what that comment meant. My supervisor could see I’d done the reading. What they couldn’t see was what I’d made of it. The connection was obvious in my head. It just hadn’t made it onto the page.
Your argument is probably already there
Years later, so what? is the question I ask most – of my own writing and of every researcher I work with. And nine times out of ten, the answer is already there. The PhD student knows exactly why that study matters. If I ask them out loud, they’ll tell me in a sentence. That argument gets lost somewhere between their head and the page.
Arguments get buried in predictable ways. Long stretches of what other people found, with the writer’s own voice arriving only at the end – if at all. Hedges stacked so deep the claim disappears. The point saved for the conclusion, like a big reveal. A colleague of mine at Swansea used to tell his students that a thesis isn’t a detective novel – nobody should have to wait until the last page to find out whodunnit.
This week I’ve seen it at both ends of the doctorate. One researcher is writing an upgrade prospectus and working out how to make the gap (and why it matters) unmistakable. Another is revising a discussion chapter full of good thinking, packed so densely that the reader loses the thread. These are different stages but the same question is underneath.
Signposts that point and signposts that argue
A lot of the fix comes down to signposting. Many of us learnt to signpost like a tour guide: This section will discuss… Next, I turn to… Having considered X, I now consider Y. Those sentences tell the reader where they are but they don’t tell them what you’re claiming.
Compare that with: This section shows that feedback only improves revision when students are taught how to use it. This is the same spot in the section but does a very different job. Now the reader knows your claim before they read the evidence, so every citation that follows connects logically to the claim.
Empty signposts aren’t wrong but they could be doing more work.
When I’m reading a draft and feel lost, the writer may have told me where we’re going next but not why we’re going there.
Reading the margins differently
Which brings me back to the so what? (or ‘why are we here?!’) feedback. Supervisor comments can feel like judgements – especially the short ones. Unclear. Expand. Why? So what? It’s easy to read them as a criticism of you, and I know more than one researcher who’s put a chapter away for a fortnight after a page full of them.
Look closer, though, and many margin comments are asking the same thing. Unclear might mean I can’t find your point. Expand often means you’ve described this – now tell me what it means. Why is this here? is so what? with better manners. Read your feedback this way and it turns into something useful: a map of the places where you can highlight your claims or contribution.
So what? was my supervisor’s gift, although it didn’t feel like one at the time. Every so what? marked a spot where the thinking was there but my writing hadn’t caught up.
Try this
Take a section you’ve already drafted and ask so what? of it – kindly, but properly.
- Backward outline it. Write one line per paragraph saying what that paragraph claims. If all you can write is what it’s about, that paragraph needs a so-what sentence.
- Find your claim. Finish this sentence out loud: This chapter argues that… Then look for that second part of the sentence in your draft. If you can’t point to it, you’ve found the problem – and the fix.
- Move it up. Put the claim at the start of the section, and open each paragraph with the point it makes. Let the evidence follow.
- Rewrite one signpost. Swap a this section will discuss for a this section shows that. Read both versions aloud and notice the difference.
Your argument is probably there already. Your job now is to bring it to the surface.
Answer the so what? before your supervisor has to ask!
Not sure where your argument has gone? Send me a paragraph you’re stuck on and tell me what you’re trying to say. I’ll tell you whether I think the so what? is there.