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Upload your proposal or draft chapter and ask Anara to identify your three strongest points, the areas most likely to draw committee questions, and specific lines of inquiry that follow from your methodology and claims. For PhD students who need to walk into the defense room knowing where their argument is strongest and where it is most exposed.

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1. Describe the task

The defense is in two weeks. You know your material but not which version of it the committee will interrogate. The questions that derail a defense follow directly from the methodology, the scope, the theoretical choices, and the gaps your argument leaves unaddressed. Anara reads your proposal or draft chapter and maps the lines of inquiry that follow from it. It looks at what your argument claims, what your methodology can and cannot support, and where members from adjacent fields are most likely to push. The output is an analysis of the pressure points in your argument, not a prediction of what your committee will ask. Here a candidacy exam candidate in educational leadership is presenting a dissertation proposal on self-regulation in Alberta classrooms and wants to anticipate the methodological challenges a committee of four faculty members is likely to raise.

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2. Give Anara context

Required context
  • Your dissertation proposal, draft chapter, or candidacy exam paper as a PDF or from your library.
Optional context
  • The composition of your committee, if known. Knowing that one member works in quantitative methods and another in policy allows Anara to weight its analysis toward the angles each is likely to bring.
  • Any written feedback your supervisor has already shared. Known concerns are more important to prepare for than inferred ones.

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3. What Anara creates

A structured defense preparation document covering your argument’s strong points, its vulnerabilities, and anticipated questions with drafted responses. Strong points give you anchors to return to when a question goes sideways. Vulnerabilities tell you where to pre-empt criticism by acknowledging limitations yourself, which is more effective than defending them under pressure.

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4. Follow-up prompts

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Rehearse a specific question

When you want to practice delivering an answer rather than reading one.

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Develop a presentation outline

When you need to turn the defense prep into the actual 20-minute talk.

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Sharpen the limitation section

When you want to acknowledge gaps strategically rather than defensively.

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5. Tricks, tips, and troubleshooting

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How you word your prompt shapes what you get

Asking for “likely questions” without specifying the basis produces generic questions that could apply to any dissertation. Anchor the prompt: “questions that follow from my specific choice to use semi-structured interviews rather than surveys” is more useful than “what might they ask about my methodology.” If you know your supervisor’s main concern, name it. Anara weights the analysis around the concerns you flag.

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Check the output against your own understanding

Anara identifies vulnerabilities based on what is in your proposal. It does not know your committee members’ specific views, their published critiques of similar work, or your department’s unwritten norms. The most useful prep session combines Anara’s structural analysis with your own knowledge of the people in the room. Use Anara for the formal mapping; bring your own knowledge of the committee.

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What to do with the output next

Work through the anticipated questions with someone who can respond like a committee member, either a peer, your supervisor, or by rehearsing with Anara directly in a mock-questioning follow-up. For each vulnerability Anara identifies, decide whether to address it pre-emptively in your talk or wait to be asked. Pre-empting a known weakness (“One limitation of this design is…”) usually reads as methodological maturity. Ignoring it and then being caught by the question reads as oversight.