How to skim through Phd Theses My adviser asked me to go over some PhD theses over the weekend, and by some he meant three 200~ pages theses.

Is there an effective way to skim through theses that you have figured out, as more experienced academics. I could not go over all of them without taking most of my weekend doing so.
Of course, you can use existing theses just like you would a journal article where you extract information to guide your research. However, I'd like to focus discussion here on the role of theses as a tool for teaching you how to write your own thesis.

Choosing theses to deconstruct:
Assuming you are writing a PhD thesis yourself, it can be really helpful to find a selection of other PhD theses in order to give you a sense of what the overall product can look like. Three is a good start, but I would be aiming to find about six or seven. The best theses are probably those that are 


on a similar topic or at least in the  same discipline as your thesis and with a broadly similar methodological orientation
follow a similar structural framework to your own (e.g., similar length, same in terms of whether it is a large thesis or PhD by publication)
well written


Things to learn from deconstruction: Carefully deconstructing such manuscripts can teach you a lot about both what a thesis involves and also what are some of the alternative modes of presentation. For instance you can look at things like:


How was it formatted
How many chapters were there and how was content distributed
How were aims presented and how was the importance of the thesis justified
How was literature, method,results, and discussion distributed (e.g., some in each chapter or over separate chapters)
How extensive or focussed was the literature review
What was the overall scale of the thesis (e.g., amount of data collection, sophistication of analyses, etc.)
What is the standard expected of a thesis (e.g., seeing the imperfections of  theses that have passed can be helpful should you fall victim to perfectionism) 


When in candidature to spend time deconstructing:
In fact, examining and deconstructing theses can be a useful exercise at multiple stages of your PhD candidature.


At the very start of your PhD it can give you a broad feel for what it is that you are aiming to produce.
When you are moving towards setting out the overall structure of your thesis in terms of chapters and sections it can give you a feel of whether you are on track
When you are making formatting and stylistic decisions, existing theses can provide a useful frame of reference.