Originally published on eve.gd on 29 December 2020.
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My Ph.D. supervisors were not particularly hands on. This was not slacking on their part – it suited me just fine and they could see that I had the thesis project in hand.
There was a lesson from one of my supervisors that I will never forget, though. I was writing my first conference paper proposal/abstract. I felt it wasn’t quite right and asked for his advice. I expected him to suggest a new framework, or different terms, or a multitude of other minor language edits.
He did one thing. He cut and pasted one sentence so that it was higher up the proposal. The reordering made all the sense. I learned that a lot of writing is not just what you say, but the order in which you say it.