The writing of a dissertation or final report usually involves a longer period of time and more one-to-one supervision than does any previous work in a program of study. There should, therefore, be opportunity for you to receive feedback as you undergo the process of planning, investigating and writing up the work (rather than only after completion). Let us therefore consider how to make use of this feedback.
Proactively seeking advice
As you progress through the investigation of issues and the writing of tike dissertation itself, so the kind of advice you will require changes. You need to recognize this and actively seek the appropriate kind of feedback at the right time. In my experience some students are very good at getting the most out of me as a supervisor and varying their questioning as they progress; others are less so and tend to remain at one level where they either expect too much or too little or an inappropriate kind of guidance.
To get the best out of your supervisor, you need to see yourself as managing the way in which you are being supervised:
- At the early stages of the dissertation period you need to ask for guidance on the questions that you are asking (for example, ‘is my underlying question reasonable and likely to produce useful results?’).
- Subsequently, you need to ask for advice on methods of data collection, experimental procedures or literature searching (‘how do I go about finding out if the new approach advocated by some in the field is actually delivering the kind of better industrial relations claimed?’).
- Then you will need to be asking questions about the progress of any ‘fieldwork’ and about how you may need to shift the focus of your work according to the kinds of findings that you are getting (‘the interviews I conducted have raised some unexpected questions – should I pursue them or should I stay with the original plan and write up what I have got?’).
- Finally, you will need to ask questions about the presentation of your work: where to use a diagrammatic form, what material should be in an appendix, how to use references and footnotes (‘one of the interviews in particular was fascinating – could I put the whole of die transcript in the main body of the text or should I leave it in the appendix with the rest and just quote odd sentences’).
Your expectations of your supervisor
One thing that grieves many of my colleagues is that some of their students expect them to read material full of grammatical and spelling errors, or otherwise poorly presented, with a view to offering constructive guidance for redrafting. Poor presentation, of whatever kind and for whatever reason, obscures meaning and takes up die supervisor’s valuable time – apart from which, dealing with matters of this kind is hardly the best use of the supervisor’s skills and expertise. It is a relatively straightforward matter to tidy up your work by running it through a spell checker and by reading it through.
Supervisors are there to offer guidance and suggestions. They will not necessarily insist that you follow their advice to the letter. However, if you do feel that you want to reject your supervisor’s advice then you might do well to examine your motives with care. While your own instincts about the best way forward may be rooted quite reasonably, for example, in your professional understanding, the requirements of the dissertation may differ. Your supervisor may help you to interpret the task of writing a dissertation in the context of the intended audience (examiners and others in the field), the assessment procedure (awarding marks according to criteria) and limits and possibilities.