The most crucial aspect of this progress review is to show that you have developed a realistic timetable indicating how and when you will complete preparation of your thesis. Therefore a presentation is not required at this stage, and a less formal structure may be appropriate subject to the student’s situation.
The most helpful report will contain a detailed breakdown of the structure of your thesis, presented in the form of a comprehensive table of contents. This should show all main chapter headings with a breakdown of the key sub-headings.
It will also be useful to show you have assembled your results (tables, figures etc) into a logical order and have divided them into chapters. There is no need for any discussion but it will be useful for you to identify outstanding areas of research work together with the approaches you will adopt to complete your study on time.
Subsequent to this report, the panel may be in the position to sign you off as ‘writing up’. This is particularly advantageous for students who are self-funding or with limited funding since the fees are reduced to zero for the writing up year, beyond the minimum candidature.
Please bear this in mind when writing your report; ‘writing up’ implies that you no longer require laboratory facilities, and you will have to make a clear case to your panel before they sign off on the change.