The appointment with the lecturer is approaching ... How you can prepare yourself

Do you have an appointment with the supervisor of your next thesis? Would you like to know what can be asked, what you can already prepare and what is expected of you?

We can help you with a few questions. Over the years, we have reflected with many students and lecturers on both successful and unsuccessful office hours. Here is a short summary in the form of tips and guiding questions for your preparation:

In general:

• Whether online or in person, be punctual. Lecturers' schedules are usually relatively full.
• As much as necessary, as little as possible: Of course you can go to your lecturers with your questions and concerns. But also try to find out as much as possible in other ways and don't write 10 emails straight away. Even if your questions are relatively urgent for you, you won't necessarily get an answer any faster.
• Communication between lecturers and students also often takes place digitally during the on-campus semester. It is a challenge for lecturers to respond appropriately to the large volume of emails from students. It is best to think about which (clearly formulated) questions are suitable for an email and which you can better clarify in an (online) appointment.

If you are still at the very beginning:

• Did you take away an interesting question or thought from the last seminar that is on your mind? Very good! If you want to write a term paper or thesis, a sparkling idea and a more focussed interest are very important and will be appreciated. So: less "What can I do?" and more "I have the idea of doing XY. What do you think?".
• But, of course, you don't have to have a finalised plan in your pocket. You agree with the lecturer which content is worthwhile and how the interest can be focussed.
• Are you worried right at the start that the work might not be finished on time? Then it's better to reconsider whether you want to start it at this point instead of asking for a later deadline. The usual deadlines are usually also an important guideline for lecturers, according to which they organize their timetable. Think of your time management as a small part of your examination performance.
• Clarifying formalities such as the preferred citation system or line spacing, margins etc. first can have a calming effect. However, don't dwell too much on these points during the interview. It's better to concentrate on the content of the work first, as this will be the main thing that is assessed later. Many lecturers or even entire departments also publish information sheets on citation, layout and other requirements on their homepage or in their seminars. This gives them more time to concentrate on the essentials in a personal discussion with you.
• Feel free to take notes! A lot is often discussed in a very short space of time during office hours.
• Clarify how closely you want to be supervised during the writing process. Should/can you check in regularly or send parts of the text in advance?

When you have familiarized yourself a little:

• If you have promised text samples, remember to send them. However, you cannot necessarily be guaranteed a detailed response. Perhaps this thought will help: If you were completely on the wrong track, the supervisor would certainly give you a warning.
• You may have agreed on a topic and gained an overview of the literature that could be relevant to your work. So the framework is set. Now it's time to decide which aspects and questions you want to focus on and with what aim. There are often several options to consider. You can present several variants of a question or problem in the consultation and further narrowing down can also be done here. However, it is important that your supervisor sees that you have already thought about what you want to achieve with your work.
• It can happen that lecturers recommend a different focus "in the middle", so to speak, or introduce aspects that you had not planned for. Don't panic. Listen to it calmly and think about it. The aim here is to combine new ideas and suggestions with what you already have. If you are against these changes to the plan for good (substantive!) reasons, you can say so. It is important that agreement is reached.
• There are usually several ways of organizing a paper. Which arrangement of the chapters do you think makes sense and why? Feel free to present your outline proposal. Our peer writing tutors recommend the following procedure: As soon as you are ready, send a 1-page draft with topic, research question and outline to the lecturer and ask for feedback or bring it to the office hour. This serves the purpose of

1. self-reflection: If I write it all down like this, does it fit together?

2. overview: Even if emails have already been written back and forth, lecturers may not be able to remember the details. It's better to summarize everything clearly on one page for quick reference.

3. start writing: If nothing is said against it, then it is definitely going in the right direction, so start writing with motivation!

On the home stretch and beyond:

• As your writing process progresses, you should become more independent bit by bit. Don't send any more preliminary versions shortly before the final submission. Firstly, these could be confusing and secondly, you are supposed to complete the work independently. Instead, take enough time for revision and correction and get feedback from fellow students or peer writing tutors. Only make an appointment with your lecturer in this phase in urgent exceptional cases.
• Of course, you can ask for detailed feedback from your supervisor. Even with a good grade! Preferably in a direct conversation and using specific examples in your text.