1. Essentials of Oral Defense (Legal English)

2. This lecture will address the academic issues you need to be aware of in your oral defense. It will not cover the administrative issues concerning the event.

3. What makes an oral defense?
5~ 10
minutes
5~ 10
minutes
Thesis Presentation Session
Question & Answer Session +
You present a summary of your thesis.
You answer questions raised by the examiners.
What makes an oral defense?

4. Part I: Thesis Presentation
Q1: What should I include in my presentation?
Q3: What should I stay alert to when preparing for my thesis presentation?
Q2: What should I stay alert to when presenting my thesis?

5. Part I: Thesis Presentation
Q1: What should I include in my presentation?
Q3: What should I stay alert to when preparing for my thesis presentation?
Q2: What should I stay alert to when presenting my thesis?

6. 1. Context against which the thesis is set
You need to specify the following information:
Who you are and where you work: E.g. I’m a staff in a joint venture titled XXX….
What the situation is: E.g. At work I always need to offer my legal advice to my clients. During this process, what challenges me most is often the research and analysis of long and complicated legal documents. How to compare the different laws in different countries and then offer useful advice is what had prompted me to carry out the research….

7. 2 . Research objective and rationale
You need to specify the following information:
Research objective: E.g. This research is intended to figure out some practical methods and skills that can be applied to the comparative studies of legal documents.
Research rationale: E.g. This research bases itself on certain theories. Menski puts forward the idea that comparative law and legal theory should be viewed in a globalising world… . To put it briefly, this theory suggests that….

8. 3 . Data description and analysis
You need to specify the following information:
Data/ Case description: E.g. The data analysed in this research are 10 articles collected from legal documents in China and the US. They all focused on the issue of …. A typical case under the Chinese legal environment is ….
Data/ Case analysis: E.g. The 10 articles are categorized into several groups in accordance with the focus on different aspects of the issues. A deeper look into the aspects followed….

9. 4. Results and suggestions
You need to specify the following information:
Results: E.g. Through the data analysis, it is found that several differences exist between the Chinese and US focus in those articles. These differences include….In the Chinese law, the focus is on…; while in the US law, that focus is shifted to ….
Suggestions: E.g. Comparing the different focus under different legal contexts, it is suggested that when applying such laws and articles, the lawyers and legal researchers should take into account such elements as….

10. 5. Conclusion and limitations
You need to specify the following information:
Conclusion: E.g. In conclusion, the discrepancies between Chinese and American law in … requires the lawyers and legal researchers to adopt suitable skills. Meanwhile, such people are advised to make a wise selection of these skills….
Limitations: E.g. There are, however, a few limitations to the research that may affect the above-made conclusion. For one thing, the size of the data is limited. If more data were collected and analyzed, further differences or skills may have been discovered. For another things….

11. Part I: Thesis Presentation
Q1: What should I include in my presentation?
Q3: What should I stay alert to when preparing for my thesis presentation?
Q2: What should I stay alert to when presenting my thesis?

12. Content: All for one. Research objective, research rationale, data/ case description, data/ case analysis, results and suggestions, conclusions and limitations should address the SAME issue, or the topic of the research.
Organization: All in one. Make sure that you include all the above-mentioned components and follow the suggested sequence. Use markers whenever possible (so, therefore, first, second, etc.)
Language: No excuse for any mistakes. Use short sentences. Use markers to indicate the sequence and change of topics. Use correct tenses.

13. Part I: Thesis Presentation
Q1: What should I include in my presentation?
Q3: What should I stay alert to when preparing for my thesis presentation?
Q2: What should I stay alert to when presenting my thesis?

14. 1) Manner:
Start your presentation upon the examiners’ permission.
Indicate when your presentation is over.
No reading of your paper, or notes is allowed.
2) Pronunciation: Accuracy, speed, intonation.

15. Q1: What might be the questions?
Part II: Q & A Session
Q1: What might be the questions?
Q2: What is considered to be a good answer?

16. Q1: What might be the questions?
Part II: Q & A Session
Q1: What might be the questions?
Q2: What is considered to be a good answer?

17. Your examiners will focus their questions on key issues or issues that need further clarification or specification concerning your thesis and your presentation.
You need to have a “mind-map” of the organization and content of your thesis. In addition, you should be able to interpret the information conveyed in your thesis using simple and communicative language.

18. Concerning your topic:
Why are you interested in this topic?
How closely related is your topic to your work?
Concerning your research objective:
What is the relevance of this objective to your topic?
What significance or benefits will your research bring to the legal profession?
Concerning your research rationale:
What are the major theories that back up your research?
How are these theories related to your data/ case analysis?
Could you elaborate on one of these theories?

19. Concerning your data description:
Can you briefly describe the data/ case/ articles/ paragraphs?
What are the sources of the data/ case/ articles/ paragraphs?
How are the data /articles/ paragraphs connected with the research objective?
Concerning your data analysis:
What are your methods to analyze the data?
How can the data analysis help fulfill your research objective ?
How do the theories mentioned in the rationale help guide the date analysis?

20. Concerning your results:
What results can you derive from the data analysis?
How can the data analysis verify the results?
Have you achieved your research objective by coming up with such results? Why or why not?
Concerning your suggestions:
What implications do the results have for legal practice?
How can the data analysis support the suggestions?

21. Concerning your research in general:
What have you learnt from this research?
In what ways can this research benefit your work?
What difficulties did you come across when implementing your research and how did you solve them?
In what ways can your research be improved?

22. Q1: What might be the questions?
Part II: Q & A Session
Q1: What might be the questions?
Q2: What is considered to be a good answer?

23. What is said is what has been written.
Give brief answers to the point. You can name the chapter where an answer is addressed as a further reference for the examiners.
Use short sentences!
Use correct tenses!
Speak good English!
Communicate, don’t recite!

24. Good Luck!