Meeting your supervisor
Published on 11 June 14
You'll hopefully have begun working on your dissertation and be arranging regularly meetings with your supervisor to discuss your work; here's how to get the most out of your meetings.
Make sure you've arranged enough meetings in advance over summer
Academics often take leave or organise research tips over the summer, so make sure you have all your meetings booked in before they go away - there is no point saving meet-ups for later if they aren't going to be about. Once they are away they might also have limited access to emails, so you'll want to get any questions answered before they leave.
Go to each meeting with goals
There is no point in meeting up with your supervisor if you have nothing to discuss. Before each meeting make a list of things you want to discuss and think of areas which they might be able to help you with. Don't just think about what is a problem now, but also anticipate issues that might come up in a couple of weeks. If you are struggling with what to read, your supervisor is the perfect source of reading material.
Write down what they say
Your supervisor will tell you a lot of useful things in your meeting. Write it down. With the amount of information you are taking on during dissertation season it is likely you’ll have forgotten what they said an hour later.
Let them read some of your work
Your supervisor is there to help you and they are (usually) allowed to read a section of your dissertation. If there is a bit you are really worried about then ask them to look over it. They can give you excellent advice on structure, style and content which will inform the other parts of your work.