Working with your Supervisor and Second Reader

Finding a Supervisor

Beginning in the Fall semester, the Director will start considering which faculty members might be suitable to supervise your MRP. If you have ideas about who you hope to work with, feel free to let the Director know at this point.

Once the Director has connected you with a potential Supervisor, you should arrange a meeting with them to explain your plan for your MRP and to assess whether both you and they think the supervisory relationship is feasible. If not, let the Director know right away so we can continue the search for a Supervisor.

The Director will confirm the supervisory relationship by email. At that point, it’s up to you and your Supervisor to plan how and when you’ll meet. You should schedule regular meetings in a way that is convenient for both of you. (Some typical patterns are 30-45 minutes weekly or 60 minutes every second week.) In each meeting, be prepared to talk about the work you’ve done since the last one, and bring any questions you have about the upcoming work.

Developing the Proposal

Your Supervisor will advise you on refining your research question and selecting an appropriate research method. They will also point you to relevant literature and other sources. If your project requires MREB or HiREB approval, your Supervisor is responsible for signing off on your submitted protocol in the REB portal.

Make sure to allow enough time for your Supervisor to read and comment on a draft version of your proposal before the due date. Submit your draft as a Word .docx to the program office. The program office logs your submission and sends it to the MA Committee, who will provide feedback within two weeks.

Working towards the First Draft

The due date for the First Draft should not be the first time your Supervisor reads your work! Use the benchmark dates from your proposal to prepare various subsections of the draft for feedback from your supervisor along the way. The First Draft is your opportunity to pull together all the pieces into a complete document and get detailed feedback on the whole thing.

Submit your draft as a Word .docx to the program office by the due date. The program office logs your submission and sends it to your Supervisor, who will return your draft with comments and suggestions for revision within ten days.

There’s not much room for flexibility on due dates from this point on, because your Supervisor and Second reader will have already planned their time for reviewing and giving feedback. If you anticipate needing flexibility on due dates for accessibility reasons, please give the Director as much notice as possible so we can ensure that faculty are available to give you timely feedback on your work.

The Director will confirm your Second Reader at this point, if not earlier.

Creating the Second Draft

You can expect that your first draft will need fairly substantial revisions in response to your Supervisor’s comments. Aim to make the Second Draft as close to final as possible, because this is the version that will be assessed.

Submit your second draft as a Word .docx to the program office by the due date. If your project has components that are not readily submittable as text documents (for example, artwork), arrange some way to make these components available for assessment.

The program will log your submission and send it to the Supervisor and Second Reader. The Supervisor and Reader will both assess the MRP on a Pass/Fail basis and report this assessment to the Program within ten days.

Second Readers may offer to discuss elements of the project with you while it is in process, but typically their role is to read and evaluate only the Second Draft. They may ask for minor edits but are not asked to provide extensive feedback.

Final Version

Make any corrections that your supervisor and second reader have requested to produce the final version of your paper. Submit this version to the program in pdf format by the due date, along with the MRP Final Submission Form. If you want to graduate in the Fall Convocation, this deadline is firm.