The Best of Beginnings: The First Formal Meeting with Your Supervisor
As you embark upon the advanced research required for a thesis or dissertation, you may already know or have corresponded extensively with the faculty member who will be your primary guide. Perhaps you have taken courses with that scholar, are an admirer of his or her research or specifically chose that person to supervise your own research. On the other hand, you may have simply been assigned to your supervisor based on your research topic and have little or no personal or professional knowledge of the individual who will prove so important to your academic or scientific work. Whatever your prior experience of your thesis supervisor, dissertation mentor or committee chair may be (terminology varies among universities), your first formal meeting is a vital one, and it is essential to be well prepared and begin your working relationship on a positive and productive note.
Preparation for the first formal meeting with a thesis supervisor can involve many different things and will vary from student to student and thesis to thesis, but knowledge of two kinds is especially important. For one, you should ensure that you learn as much as possible about your supervisor’s research and publications. You may already have done this thoroughly while choosing your university and supervisor, in which case refreshing your memory of the work you already know or taking the time to read and reflect on your supervisor’s most recent research or publication is a great idea. This is an ideal scenario, but it may be that you have not yet begun investigating the work of your supervisor. If this is the case, you may not have enough time before the first meeting to find and read everything that he or she has published, but one or two pieces closely related to the research you are planning will certainly be worth the effort you invest. The idea behind knowing your supervisor’s research and writing is not attaining the ability to demonstrate your knowledge (though that cannot hurt) or flatter your mentor (which is not the best policy and will likely be detected). Instead, the goal is to determine where your supervisor is coming from in intellectual terms and better understand how to read with accuracy and sophistication and thereby make the most beneficial use of the comments and suggestions he or she offers on your ideas and work.
The primary knowledge you should bring to your first meeting with your supervisor is a clear conception of what you hope to achieve while working on your thesis or dissertation. Your research plan may still be somewhat hazy, but reviewing and clarifying it in your mind with the focus being to share it with your supervisor will help you be more precise and specific while discussing it. On the other hand, you may feel that your intentions are already crystal clear and set in stone, in which case it will be a good idea to accept the possibility of change and compromise, preparing yourself to be flexible so that you can benefit from the greater knowledge and experience of your supervisor. Remember that however you and your new supervisor discuss the work ahead, a friendly and professional relationship will serve your needs best, and such a relationship is based upon mutual respect when opinions differ as well as when they agree.
