“Your supervision is the best I’ve ever experienced…
Natalie was my supervisor whilst I was writing my second MSc dissertation. Without her depth of knowledge, academic rigour and imagination, I feel my dissertation would not have had the breadth in the subject area, structure and insights it now has. Writing my dissertation became an experience with Natalie, not a process. Her feedback was via Loom (face to face and recorded) and it was prompt and fearless, with her personality and humour in there too.
I never felt she was inhibited about how I was going to hear the feedback. She didn’t waste time on trying to package it. I liked her precision and clear style – it was very motivating. I looked forward to receiving her feedback as I knew as a result of it, my knowledge and research capability was going to increase and my dissertation was going to improve. Natalie’s feedback included structure, order, grammar, subject matter, pairing of ideas, bringing insights to the surface, drawing out my own style, and being braver in my assertions and contribution to the field. Natalie left it up to me as to whether I incorporated her feedback but her feedback was immediate (literally within 4 minutes of sending her something once), instinctive, and grounded in logic and the subject matter so it was difficult not to.
Natalie identified links I hadn’t noticed, and at the same time, was very generous to the work, and appreciated that it was my idea we were trying to craft, and she ensured that that remained the purpose, but took it to a level I hadn’t appreciated. I completed by dissertation whilst working full time and it wouldn’t have worked if I hadn’t experienced her conscientiousness and discipline.
My words to Natalie at the end of my academic journey with Natalie was ‘your supervision is the best I’ve ever experienced, prompt and fearless, exactly what you need to write something worth reading’
Penny Godfrey