Category: You and your supervisor

If you start a blog called ‘The Thesis Whisperer’ I suppose you should expect students to write to you asking for personal help. What has surprised me however is how OFTEN I get emails from students who are upset, confused or just plain pissed off. Mostly these students are complaining about their supervisors. The rate …continue reading.

Resolving conflict with your partner in front of children can be a harrowing business. My parents were happy to have a domestic in front of my sister and I. When the dust settled, my parents would inevitably deny they had been fighting at all. “It was only a discussion” my mother would say. They sure …continue reading.

Dr Evelyn Tsitas used to be a journalist and works at the RMIT University Gallery. Last year she was awarded a PhD in Creative Writing in the Media and Communications at RMIT about Werewolves and Vampires (amongst other things). In her first post for the Whisperer Evelyn told us the fun side of having a …continue reading.

This post, written by a PhD student, who wishes to stay anonymous, was sent to me late last year. Due to my new job, it’s taken me a long time to edit it down and make sure it doesn’t identify the student or their supervisor. I think you will find it an interesting story that …continue reading.

This post is Dr Gabrielle Appleby, Senior Lecturer at the University of Adelaide Law School. She researches and teaches in public law, and is particularly interested in questions about the role and powers of the Executive, federalism, and the judicial branch of government. In this post Gabrielle reflects on taking the role of supervisor for …continue reading.

This post was written by Jonathan Downie, a PhD student, conference interpreter, public speaker and translator based in Edinburgh, Scotland. He co-edits LifeinLINCS the unofficial blog of the Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies at Heriot-Watt University. He is married with one child and another on the way. His newest blog Rock Your Talk aims …continue reading.

This post is by Hedda Ransan-Cooper who is currently a PhD Candidate, School of Sociology at the ANU. She doesn’t (yet) have a blog but you can find her on twitter: @hedda_r Perhaps you’re one of those people who have always known exactly what you wanted to study. I suspect, though, a lot of researchers …continue reading.

Lauren Gawne was a PhD student in the School of Languages and Linguistics at the University of Melbourne. She wrote this post while she was in ‘examination limbo’ has now received her examiners reports back and found out she has passed. When she isn’t working on the grammar of Yolmo and making bets about how …continue reading.

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…

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 …continue reading.