Assisting candidates to do their research
This section provides some resources that will help supervisors, and trainers of supervisors, to develop various ways of assisting candidates during thier research.
Literature review
This activity is for supervisors who wish to provide better assistance to their candidates on issues concerning the literature review. Literature reivew
A further tool is provided for supervisors to develop strategies for helping candidates with literature reviews. Developing such stratergiesare important for many reasons: Early in their candidacy many candidates hold rather simplistic conceptions of what a literature review is, how to conduct one and how to write it. candidates also often report that their supervisors did not give them as much help with this aspect of their work as they felt they needed. Examiners single out the literature review as a major influence on their first impressions of the thesis. A tool to help with literature reviews
This workshop encourages supervisors to help their candidates take a reflective approach to reviewing the literature related to their research. It is appropriate for both experienced and inexperienced supervisors, and could be modified to include some candidates as well. A workshop on literature reviews
Finally in this section, a tool to help candidates identify thier research question from the literature review is presented here.
Writing a thesis
The workshop plan, via the link below, is designed to help supervisors explain the structure of a typical research report or thesis to their candidates. The basic plan is for a seminar and discussion session covering the major sections of an extended research report (or thesis). Suggestions for offering this material plus writers' workshop activities for supervisors and/or candidates are included in the plan. A tool to help with thesis writing