Hi all,

Just wondering if I could get some friendly advice - confused.com here! In brief, I finish my PhD in September and am well on track, all has been going great with chapters I have submitted to my first sup - a world leader in his field and he is really pleased. A little too great perhaps!

After I get each chapter back, I make the necessary amendments - usually a reference or two, some more theory in places and typos and then send to my 2nd sup. Problem - he really doesn't like it - describing what 1st sup has termed excellent as vague, incoherent, lacking an explicit argument and unidimensional! Major panic now! 1st sup has never mentioned any of this and I know from pervious work with him he certainly would if he saw fit. I have also had an article published in a major journal so am (was) relatively confident of my approach and style.

What do I do? I will raise the issues with sup1, but don't want to immediately rush to him and say sup2 said... I am worried that if an examiner said similar to sup2 I'd be looking at a major rewrite - I really thought all was going well :(

Could you arrange a meeting with both sups and discuss the issue there? Maybe if they are both present, they will come to an agreement about what you have to do...

Oh, first and second supervisors are a nightmare- mine seem to have this strange competitive thing going on and it drives me mad! I suppose the main thing to think about is whether it is possible to incorporate your second sup's comments (to a greater or lesser extent!) without changing it so much that your primary sup doesn't like it? Obviously it would be nice to have them both really pleased with it, so I would say that is the best option. I would have a chat with your primary sup about sup 2's comments if you can, although I suppose if those comments are directly opposing sup 1's comments then it could get tricky. In that case I suppose you have to decide whose advice you would rather take. If your work falls very close to that of your primary sup and less close to that of your second sup then I would be tempted to pay more attention to what your primary sup is saying. Having said that, sometimes it is the people who are in a slightly different field who are in the best position to see things more clearly and point out where things don't quite look right, so I certainly wouldn't disregard the comments. Finally- what do you think about the comments? Do you think your second sup has a point?
Annoyingly, when my primary sup makes comments she is ALWAYS right and I can always see where she is coming from! If you can see the reasons that your second sup is unhappy then it might make sense to pay attention. Sorry, that probably hasn't helped at all but that's my thoughts on it anyway! Good luck! KB

I have 3 sups, my 3rd just make comments on his specific little bit which the other 2 are generally ok with as he's the more experienced in that bit, but the other 2 tend to disagree quit a bit.  My primary sup has said to me that when I get comments from the 2nd sup for my chapters, I should meet him and we'll go through them and see what to change and what to ignore. He says as he's primary sup, the buck stops with him.  This is also potentially cos my 2nd sup is prone to changing things again and again, changing things back to how I had them originally after he's told me to fix it etc! We also cc everyone into emails regarding chapters so everyone can see what corrections are suggested.  Perhaps you can just gather corrections, then have a meeting with all three as Emmaki suggests and let them fight it out. But I'd definitely let your primary know about the changes, he'll wonder why you are making corrections otherwise.

I had 2 supervisors, with my original one who moved away continuing to act as a joint supervisor at a distance. Both told me that if they gave me conflicting advice I was to make my own decision, and they would support that. They were obviously expecting to disagree (!), but didn't disagree in the end too much. At this late stage if you have to choose one over the other I'd go with the primary sup, not least because they're probably the person who has to sign off what you've done prior to submission. But you should also raise this issue with them.

Hi,
Thanks for all the replies. You confirmed a lot of my feelings. I've let sup1 know - no response tho and sup2 has mysteriously requested a meeting with me - feel like an idiot as if they've been discussing me! Dreading the meeting - I really thought things were going well :(