PhD Viva By that evening's conclusion, the memory of the viva's sharpest edges had started to dull. But her sleep was often disturbed with their voices. Morning arrived in the late afternoon. As the computer loaded she blew the cigarette ash off her desk and slipped back into her now customary hunched seating position. The file 'finalthesis.doc' was still on the desktop. She saved it again as 'thesiscorrections.doc' and with a long sigh began to type.