Hi everyone - hope you're all having a good weekend, despite the cold!

My MSc dissertation is due in a week on Monday and I had an hour long meeting with my supervisor yesterday, after sending him a chapter draft. He said that a section (of about 500 words) was "undercooked", basically there were a few mistakes that showed gaps in my knowledge/understanding and that I should take it out. It was quite a complex section in terms of theory and so I'm not too worried, it isn't a vital part of the chapter so I can rework it. He also said that the rest was much better and that my writing style was good so I'm trying not to worry too much. He also said that I should "play to my strengths" and that I was still learning and shouldn't worry too much about not having a perfect understanding of this area.

I wasn't particularly upset or surprised about this, although he was fairly blunt he knew I could take it and he was certainly being constructive. However, he is supposed to be the lead supervisor for my PhD that I'm starting in January - if he sees me making mistakes is he likely to change his mind about supervising me? Surely I'm allowed to make a few, I'm just concerned that he's going to think I'm less capable than he thought I was. He did say that he didn't understand this particular theorist until a few years ago which was reassuring. I hope that he thinks I'll be able to improve and produce a good dissertation.

Sorry if I'm worrying too much and rambling, thanks for reading.

Nx

Hi Natassia

You are worrying too much but you're about to submit and so you're allowed. ( rambling is a prerequisite for this site )

He sounds like the perfect sup to me.  He's read your work !   He commented on it in an informed and constructive manner, he told you your strengths and weaknesses and admitted some weaknesses of his own.   He reassured you that you've got a good writing style and appreciates that you're learning.

Boy.. you've found a gem. 

All the best for your submission, have a relaxing Christmas and come back full of beans in the New Year.

Regards, Chuff

Thanks Chuff - he is a brilliant supervisor and very well-regarded in the field so I'm lucky to have him supervise me really. I think that because starting (and hopefully completing!) my PhD in January is such an exciting and major goal for me I keep thinking it is never going to happen, and that it could be taken away from me really easily. I just want to finish my MSc now - one of my other supervisors has already started a literature search for me so I'll have plenty to read in December after submitting my dissertation! Nx

Hey Natassia! I don't think you have anything to worry about- we all worry about making mistakes in front of our supervisors or making an arse of ourselves, it comes with the territory! Once you've started your PhD you will probably stress about the first piece of written work you hand in etc, but you will get less stressed and nervous about it as time goes by. My supervisor is the queen of 'constructive criticism' and after several years it doesn't sting quite so much any more, and I have also realised that she does it to every other person on the team (some of whom are already dr.s) and plenty of others besides us! I actually bought my supervisor some 'positive feedback' stickers for her to put on my work so I at least get one piece of positive feedback per paper! It works out at about 2 pence per piece of positive feedback- bargain! Best, KB