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Craft skills for students and supervisors

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November 13, 2024February 25, 2025Students, Supervisors

Thematic analysis – a practical guide

I’ve spent much of the week reading Braun and Clarke’s book – Thematic Analysis: A Practical Guide. It was something of a […]

March 28, 2022March 28, 2022Supervisors

The audit trail

Record keeping is fundamental to research – and to research supervision.  Supervisors often resist student-record-keeping as mindless bureaucracy, but a clear audit trail […]

March 23, 2022September 11, 2023Students

Destructive behaviours (to avoid) 

Students ask:  What should I do when I haven’t made any progress? I don’t want to waste my supervisor’s time… There are few […]

November 15, 2021December 6, 2021Students

Navigating terminological confusion – the case of case studies

Students ask:  What is a case study?  One of the ironies of academia that, in a realm that strives for precision and rigour, […]

November 8, 2021September 11, 2023Students

Talk in 2 minutes

Students ask:  How can I explain all of my research in two minutes? Many conferences have two-minute slots for people to introduce their […]

November 8, 2021November 8, 2021Supervisors

Walk-and-talk

Taking an awkward or difficult conversation with a student out of the office and walking around outside while you talk – the […]

August 24, 2021September 11, 2023Students

Good enough

Students ask:  How do you know something (i.e., your research, your paper, your dissertation) is good enough? This is one of those ‘how […]

June 18, 2021July 1, 2021Students

Awkward conversations

Students ask:  How can I handle awkward conversations with my supervisors?  How can I disagree with my supervisors?  What if my supervisors are wrong? The […]

May 1, 2021December 20, 2025Students

Thrashing

Students ask:  What should I do when I keep working and working, but I don’t seem to get anywhere? Thrashing is a […]

April 2, 2021July 1, 2021Supervisors

Tough love

‘Tough love’ is concept borrowed from parenting.  In the context of supervision, it’s the notion that part of caring about and supporting students […]

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