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Higher degree thesis examination has in recent times been garnering considerable attention from researchers from various backgrounds. Thesis examiner's reports constitute an important tool in maintaining standards, improving quality, and building research capacity in higher education worldwide. The study, therefore, seeks to investigate the form of MPhil thesis examination comments on the literature review in a public university in Ghana by paying attention to text length and sequencing of message. Purposive sampling was utilized to select a total of seventy-five MPhil thesis examination reports from four disciplines, namely English, History, Hospitality and Tourism, and Population and Health. The qualitative content analysis was employed, supplemented by some descriptive statistics. Two key findings emerged from the analysis. First, in terms of text length, the MPhil thesis examiners' comments on the literature review utilized on average 114.4 words. Second, the comments were generally sequenced as (Nu)-P-(Nu)-Neg-(Nu)-S-(Nu) pattern where P (meaning positive), Neg (negative), and S (suggestion) were constant, with Nu meaning neutral. These findings, therefore, have implications for the scholarship on thesis examination comments, postgraduate pedagogy.
Afful et al. (Mon,) studied this question.