Supervision can be a great help when it comes to cementing a work process that results in a good final product - particularly in connection with bigger projects such a Bachelor's project or Master's thesis.
There are things you can do to help ensure a constructive supervision process. You can make sure you’re well-prepared, that you’re communicating clearly, and that the supervision meetings take their offset in your work. If you have any specific requests with regard to supervision make sure that you clearly communicate those requests to your supervisor so you can work together to ensure that you receive the supervision you need.
Articulate any doubts and insecurities you may have to your supervisor. Remember that the purpose of supervision is to help you in areas where you are uncertain and need help. Although it might feel a bit embarrassing, people get the most out of supervision when they show their supervisor their unfinished ideas and products.
MISTAKE | WHAT CAN YOU DO? |
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You are too considerate of your supervisor’s time You don't want to disturb your supervisor and are too considerate of the fact that they may be busy. | Insist on your supervision Many supervisors are busy, but you are entitled to supervision, so you should insist on it. If you would like to accommodate your busy supervisor, you can suggest planning your meetings well in advance. |
You put on an act for your supervisor You’re afraid of voicing your doubts and uncertainties, which means you put on an act in front of your supervisor. For example, you’re afraid to show them your drafts and unfinished texts. The supervision meetings begin to feel like an exam where you feel the need to show what you can and know. | Show your uncertainty If you’re putting on an act for your supervisor, then you’re not allowing them to help you with the issues you’re facing and not allowing them to give you the best possible supervision. If you were meant to know everything beforehand then there would be no need for supervision. Therefore, make sure to be open about your uncertainties and to ask for feedback on drafts and unfinished texts. |
You postpone supervision Many students postpone supervision until a later stage in the process thinking that they need to read one more text or consider an idea a bit more, or be even better prepared. | Get started with supervision early It’s often at the start of an assignment that you will need supervision the most, so it can be helpful to get started early. You can even use supervision to help you with your initial ideas, and then you and your supervisor can work together on choosing the best one. It’s important that you get off to a good start, for example by developing your problem statement early and by organising the structure of your assignment. Even though you may feel like you don’t have enough material and that your problem statement isn’t quite right, it’s important that you let your supervisor see what you have so they can help you. |
You don’t take responsibility and problems aren’t being resolved Some element of supervision isn’t working for you. Perhaps you and your supervisor are misunderstanding each other, and you feel like you’re not getting the advice and feedback that you need. | Acknowledge problems and try to solve them Address the problems to your supervisor. Supervision is a collaboration, which is why it’s important that you work together on solving any problems that arise. It can become necessary to change supervisor in some rare cases. Talk to your student counsellor about it. |
Keeping challenges to yourself You don't want to acknowledge the challenges you’re facing and hope that things will sort themselves out along the way. However, time is ticking and the submission deadline is getting closer and closer. | Ask for help Ask for help when things get difficult, when you have writer’s block, when you don’t understand something or when you get stuck. Supervision is there to give you the help that you need. |
There are many different types of supervision, but common to them all is that they are a professional conversation about academic content that is offered with a view to helping you plan and complete a project or an assignment. Read about the three basic types of supervision below:
During individual supervision, you will have individual meetings with a supervisor who was assigned to you or who you chose specifically. It will often be your responsibility to contact the supervisor, schedule meetings and clearly communicate what you want to get out of the meetings. This means that the responsibility of organising supervision rests mostly with you.
During your first meeting with your supervisor, it can be a good idea to talk about the framework and expectations of the process so you both have the same starting point.
For example, you can discuss the following:
How many meetings will you have?
Do you need to meet during certain phases of the writing process?
How will you communicate between meetings, e.g. by email?
How much of your text will your supervisor read?
Will there be periods during the process when you or your supervisor will not be available?
Below you will find advice on what to do before, during and after supervision.
BEFORE SUPERVISION | |
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Get started early | A number of students postpone supervision – there’s always one more text to read or more things to consider. However, this strategy is unsustainable as the start of a project is often when you need supervision the most. Make sure you begin supervision early on, so that you and your supervisor can plan the process and organise the structure of the assignment. |
Be prepared | Being well prepared will help you get the most out of supervision. It can be a good idea to consider what challenges you are facing at this point of the process and what you need in order to move forward. It’s important that you have a clear idea of what you want to discuss during the meeting, and what you want to get out of it. |
Communicate with your supervisor | Be clear when communicating with your supervisor. Let them know what you want to discuss during the meeting and what you need help with. Agreeing on the content and purpose of the meeting will help improve the supervision you receive. It is a good idea to:
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Know the requirements for the assignment | Make sure you know the requirements of the assignment you are writing. Read the academic regulations and ask your teacher or supervisor if you are unsure about how to interpret them. There are also a number of texts and books on the writing process that you can refer to if you’re unsure about certain parts of the assignment or process. |
DURING SUPERVISION | |
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Take ownership of the supervision meeting | You can create a good supervision meeting by dividing it into three phases: |
Introduction | Set the framework for the meeting. Clearly state where you are in the process and what you want to get out of the meeting. |
Middle | This is when you discuss the issues you want supervision on. This can relate to academic content, the writing process, the structure of the assignment, the problem statement, methods, literature, empirical data, etc. Take notes along the way, or ask your supervisor whether you can record the supervision. |
Conclusion | Sum up and make a plan. It’s important that you know what you’re going to continue working on after the supervision meeting, so it can be a good idea to sum-up with you supervisor. Then schedule the next meeting and agree on what you need to have ready by then. |
AFTER SUPERVISION | |
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Reflect on the outcome and think ahead | After the meeting, it’s a good idea to write some notes, write down what you’ve agreed on or write a short summary so you can remember what your supervisor said and what you agreed that you should continue working on. You can reflect on what you got out of the meeting by considering the following:
Make a to-do list of feedback and suggestions from your supervisor. |
Find and use relevant resources | Supplement your supervision as needed with some of the many available options:
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Group supervision is often similar to individual supervision in how it’s organised. Please read about individual supervision above.
The difference between individual supervision and group supervision is that there are several of you involved in producing the paper and participating in the supervision. It’s therefore important that you work together to get the most out of supervision.
Below you will find advice on what to do before, during and after supervision.
BEFORE SUPERVISION | |
|---|---|
Get started early | A number of students postpone supervision – there’s always one more text to read or more things to consider. However, this strategy is unsustainable, as the start of a project is often when you need supervision the most. Make sure you begin supervision early on, so that the group and supervisor can plan the process and organise the structure of the assignment. |
Prepare as a group | The best starting point for a good supervision meeting is being well-prepared. Prepare an agenda for the meeting together so everyone in the group has agreed on the content and objective of the supervision meeting. Think about what the purpose of the meeting is and what challenges you are currently facing. |
Communicate with your supervisor | Be clear when communicating with your supervisor. Let them know what you want to discuss during the meeting and what you need help with. Agreeing on the content and purpose of the meeting will help improve the supervision you receive. For example, you can:
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Know the requirements for the assignment | Make sure you know the requirements for the assignment you are writing. Read the academic regulations and ask your teacher or supervisor if you are unsure about how to interpret them. There are also a number of texts and books on the writing process that you can refer to if you’re unsure about certain parts of the assignment or process. |
DURING SUPERVISION | |
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Everyone participates actively | Make sure that everyone has a chance to talk during the supervision meeting. In some groups, it might be necessary to agree in advance on who presents specific issues to the supervisor. Click here to read more about collaboration and writing exam assignments in a group. |
Allocate roles | Take advantage of the fact that there are several of you participating in the supervision meeting. You can e.g. give everyone a specific role during the meeting. One group member can be the primary notetaker while someone else keeps an eye on the time and makes sure that you cover everything you need to. However, it’s also important that all members of the group participate actively in the discussion with the supervisor. |
Everyone receives feedback | You will each receive an individual grade even if you submit as a group. Check your academic regulations to see if you need to indicate who the author is of the different sections. Make sure that your supervisor has the chance to read pieces of text written by the various group members over the course of the supervision. It’s important that you all also receive feedback on your individual work during the supervision process. |
AFTER SUPERVISION | |
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Reflect on the outcome and think ahead | After the meeting, it’s a good idea to write some notes, write down what you’ve agreed on or write a short summary so you can remember what your supervisor said and what you agreed that you should continue working on. You can reflect on what you got out of the meeting by considering the following:
Make a to-do list of the feedback and suggestions from your supervisor. |
Find and use relevant resources | Supplement your supervision as needed with some of these many available options:
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Collective supervision gives you experience with presenting and discussing academic issues in groups. You will learn about the topics, approaches and methods that other students use, and it’s a good opportunity to learn from each other's experiences and processes.
Collective supervision typically takes place over the course of a semester where you meet several times with your supervision group. The supervisor often coordinates the meetings and sets a specific focus for the individual supervision meeting.
The supervisor can request that you prepare some material ahead of the meeting, e.g. a draft of a certain section of your assignment. As feedback between students is an important part of collective supervision, you will also be expected to read the work of the other students and give them feedback on it. Click here to read more about giving and receiving feedback.
The focus of collective supervision is the learning achieved by providing feedback on other people’s texts and by receiving feedback on your own text. Even though some students find that there is less focus on their individual project during collective supervision, they also find that gaining insight into other people's work and sparring with the other students is a way of qualifying their own processes and tasks.
Some advantages of collective supervision are:
Receiving feedback from several different people
Practicing scientific argumentation and professional dialogue
Feeling less alone with your project because you have other students to spar with and support you
Getting better at recognising and applying the subject's criteria when reading and providing feedback on other people's texts.
Getting started writing sooner because you will often need to produce text to have as the basis for supervision
More time spent with a supervisor
Below you will find advice on what to do before, during and after supervision.
BEFORE SUPERVISION | |
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Be prepared | Preparation typically consists of writing a draft text about your assignment or a specific section of your assignment for the other students to give you feedback on and giving feedback on your fellow student’s drafts. Introduce your text to the others e.g. tell them whether it’s a very rough draft or if it’s nearly finished, and let them know if there’s something specific you would like them to focus on. This will ensure that you receive more specific, useful feedback. The work you and your fellow students have prepared beforehand will often be the basis for the supervision meeting. So it’s important to prepare ahead of time in order to get something out of the meeting. Reading the work of your follow students and giving them feedback on it is a great learning exercise, as it’ll help familiarise you with the requirements of an assignment, which you can then transfer to your own process. |
Know the requirements for the assignment | Make sure you know the requirements of the assignment you are writing. Read the academic regulations and ask your teacher or supervisor if you are unsure about how to interpret them. There are also a number of texts and books on the writing process that you can refer to if you’re unsure about certain parts of the assignment or process. |
DURING SUPERVISION | |
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Active participation | Collective supervision involves discussions and feedback within the group, and it’s therefore important that you participate actively and contribute. If you and your fellow students take responsibility for supervision, you can, together with the supervisor, create the type of supervision that you as a group need. If you have not had time to prepare or if you’ve gotten stuck and fallen behind the other members of the supervision group, attending the supervision meeting and participating in the discussion can still be beneficial for both you and your fellow students. Advice or feedback from others might help you move forward. |
Focus on academic sparring | Look at the supervision room as a place where you and your fellow students can spar, discuss ideas and receive academic input. One of the advantages of collective supervision is that you can learn about each other’s different approaches and see that there is no definitive way of doing things. So don’t be shy about showing your drafts or voicing unfinished ideas, and don't be afraid to show any uncertainty you may feel. If you are unsure about something, please say so. There will often be others who share your doubts and uncertainties, and you can use the supervision meetings to help each other resolve them. |
AFTER SUPERVISION | |
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Reflect on the outcome and think ahead | You can reflect on what you got out of the meeting by considering the following:
Consider the feedback and suggestions you received from the others. You can make a to-do list of what you want to incorporate, so it's easier to get started. |
Find and use relevant resources | You can supplement your supervision with some of the following options:
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Orientate yourself in your curriculum on requirements for each individual subject in your programme.
It is important to follow rules and guidelines about exam cheating and plagiarism. AU Library guides you on how, so you can easily avoid it.
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