Category Archives: You and your supervisor

Oh dear – these are hard. Hold on tight.

Are you on the same page as your supervisor?

· by | in Getting things done, On Writing, You and your supervisor | tagged , , , , , , | 50 Comments

This post is by Cassily Charles from Charles Sturt University – a fellow thesis Whisperer. Cassily is the academic writing coordinator for Higher Degree Research Students in the CSU Academic Support Unit. Cassily discusses misunderstandings about writing style and how they can lead to conflict between students and supervisors. This post is enlightening to me as an educator – I hope you will be enlightened too.

This is a story about a doctoral student named Laura (a real person, but not her real name) and how she came to pull her hair out (well a few hairs anyway).

Laura began her PhD this year and really hit the ground running – within a few weeks, she was giving her supervisors many many pages about the literature on her topic. Laura’s supervisors are conscientious, organised and well-intentioned. They gave her masses of feedback on her drafts, with many helpful comments about content, style and structure, including comments such as: ‘good observation – now relate this to an over-all argument’ and ‘engage critically with these definitions’.

This is where things went wrong and Laura pulled some hairs out…

Doing your amendments without losing heart (or your mind)

· by | in Getting things done, You and your supervisor | tagged , , , | 35 Comments

Many research students in Australia will be planning to submit their thesis next month. Let’s fast forward to that sweet moment you find out your examiners reports are back, or completed your Viva and been told you have passed. Congratulations! Time to ring up the bank and the passport office to get that long awaited […]

Academic assholes and the circle of niceness

· by | in Miscellany, You and your supervisor, Your Career | tagged , , , | 195 Comments

Two of my favourite people in the academic world are my friends Rachael Pitt (aka @thefellowette) and Nigel Palmer. Whenever we have a catch up, which is sadly rare, we have a fine old time talking shop over beer and chips (well lemonade in my case, but you get the picture). Some time ago ago […]

How to complain – and be heard.

· by | in Getting things done, Miscellany, You and your supervisor | tagged , , | 3 Comments

For most students, the problems will be temporary and relatively easily dealt with. Taking up a complaint with the person concerned is the usual, and usually successful, first step. Most complaints never get lodged under formal complaint policies, however this is not always the case as some disputes and concerns cannot be resolved so simply… read on to find out how to complain – and be heard.

Should you quit your PhD?

· by | in Miscellany, You and your supervisor | tagged , | 102 Comments

Do you sometimes think about giving up? Should you entertain this notion seriously, or ignore it? When is it right to walk away?

It’s an important issue which we haven’t really tackled much on the blog to date, which is why I was pleased when B.J. Epstein, a lecturer in literature and translation at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England offered to write a post on the topic.

Feedback – From the student up the back, on the left

· by | in You and your supervisor | tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments

It’s been a while since we heard from the Student up the Back on the Left – the alter ego of RMIT teaching and learning advisor Ruth Mueller (who actually taught me how to teach long ago). Now we are in second semester the Student up the Back on the Left has a few words to say about the feedback you gave them on their essay.