I am currently writing my thesis, but each supervisor wants me to write my thesis in a different style. It is really confusing.

haha, i have this, but with ONE supervisor, who wants me to re-write it each time because she forgot what she told me the week before! I have no advice to give, apart from copy them into all your emails and state what each has required you to do. e.g.

To: sup a
CC: Sub b

Just to confirm from our meeting on tuesday, that you asked me to change x, y, z......

I Sent to one of them an email last night telling them that  im getting confused because they dont agree with each other :p but i think the email i sent was ignored because i got a reply but for something totally different lol. So i guess its like saying " ge on with it" !!

Do you guys have results and discussion together or seperately?

I'm in the same position too...perhaps its universal? I had two chapters ready to go, and enthusiastically received by one only to go to a meeting with the one who has really been out of the loop for months, who wants me to change it all around. I'm also having a bit of trouble getting them to get on and arrange the bits they have to do, I'm sure they are supposed to know what they have to do, but sometimes I wonder, its all very well them saying they have loads to do, so do I, and at least they are on campus so can pop in to see people. :-(. I'm having one of those time when there is too much to read, and too many notes to include, and I have forgotten half of the stuff I've made notes on, so I'm going to have to go through them all AGAIN. :$.

Hi Joyce.. The thing is, who do you listen to? which tutor? if you listen to one and not the other then the other will get upset and vice versa. And what if you dont completely agree. It really doesnt make things easy for us does it. Good luck girli

It is norm in this ordeal research world. Perhaps, you can adopt my style. Send to one supervisor at a time, and amend the draft then resend to others. One of the ways out of this dilemma is by sending the draft to a senior supervisor, one of those who have most experience in research based on his/her publication records, last in sequence. That's it, once you have amended your draft incorporating your final supervisor's comments, dump aside your draft chapter and start working on a new one. Finally, when you are done with all the chapters, at writing up stage, you get another headache of comments. Hence, please don't waste time at earlier stage to cater for all these various comments because each supervisor's comments are based on their experience. It could be valid from their perspective, … Oh gosh, it's too long a comment, Happy researching, Cheers.

well they are both in the same area, and know eachother well, I would say they are friends, but not sure if it goes quite that far, but with a slightly different take on the subject, second one is more...traditonal I suppose, whereas the other is quite up for new approaches and angles. It is hard to say who is the best one to follow, so what I'm doing is taking the long view of the thing and tryng to incorporate some of what this second guy wants into this chapter, whilst reatining all the rest for use later. I can see where he is coming from - up to a point, but because he is probably the leading expert in this country, and probably the world in his own niche, it gets quite hard to disagree. I've said to him on occasion that I know exactly what he wants me to say, but I'm not going to say it, because i don't think he is right in my particular study (he doesn't know much about my particular area). The other one is much more open to just seeing how it pans out as he says I'm the expert in my bit and he is learning from me, the trouble is he has moved to another uni now, so is not around to chat with the other one as I suspect he used to do. i am going to take the second ones advice up to a point, but then I'm going to tell him that the rest of what he wants will appear in another chapter when I've got that one written! Plus I think the first will have more influence on who gets to examine it, so thats the one I will take most notice of in the long run. :$

Hi Sre292.. the thing is. Thats what i done to start with, and i am meant to be having my moc viva next month. But one of my supervisors after reading my chapters has a totally different idea of how chapters should look, and where certain things should go. I have not much time to change things all over again , but i understand him in some ways. I dont want to upset either of them :S...aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ...lol
Oh yeah and i have an advisor but my supervisor does not want me to include them becuase they think it would confuse matters.. so its all headache at the moment

Well joyce your problem sounds like mine. But for me I had a supervisor expert on this topic but left half way through. So another supervisor took me on but is expert in other topics. So I yeah i think i will take the ideas which i agree with on board and then leave the rest the way i have it.

hey Amanda. It is not only common but very natural to end up with supervisors that have different opinions. They are not really there to tell you what to do or unite in giving the same advice. You need to take all that advice into consideration, filter out the irrelevant bits and make it work for you. If you identify strong points of each of your supervisor and go to them with specific questions you'd get more efficient results. Managing the advice you get is also part of the process. When you stick to one of those suggested styles and explain why, the other supervisors would accept and offer their help in other areas. Good luck.

Thanks for the advice 404 ..

lol.. just recieved email from sup, he wants me to take out a section and put in the intro .. but my other sup wants me to take it out of intro and put it in discussion lol.. hmmmmmmmm

Oh no! I know its confusing, but make the most of the advice. My sup rarely gives me advice about writing, in fact she never even commented on ANY written work until 3 weeks ago - I'm in my 3rd year, due to finish in october. So although its annoying, just take it in and then see how you think it best fits. Perhaps ask them to CC each other in when they send you requests like this?

You may need to look at past PhD theses in your department and see what kind of style they used. If there is one that uses your style you can use this as evidence that your style is valid. You will need to convince or persuade your supervisor that your style is valid and useful for your research to gain his/her support. If you don't follow what your supervisor says he/she will not defend you if any problem arises. All the best.

K

Thanks Guys .. ;-)(up)