ABSTRACT
Students need to demonstrate in writing that they have met these criteria, attesting that they possess research skills for future independent work. Supervisors can shore up their students' defences, because the criteria that guide examiners can also inform research students. As methodological decisions are made in the first few months of the doctorate, students should be encouraged to write down the rationale behind choices in clear formal language, in order to preempt examiner questions. Examiners warm to introductions that convey the student's motivations for the project —fostering writing in the early phase makes it more likely that this first glow of enthusiasm will infuse the prose. Students can emulate similar lexical, tonal and rhetorical strategies in their own work once their attention is drawn into the implicit workings of disciplinary discourses. Allowing students to respond to this self-critique aided by a set of critical questions equips students with a practical workerly framework for self-reflection.
