Steve Tippins advises students to send their academic chair a detailed agenda before every meeting, listing specific questions labeled A, B, and C. Flag vague feedback like "give me more" and ask what it actually means: more sources, deeper analysis, or better integration of findings.
If you are going to have a meeting with your chair, make sure you're ready for the meeting, not just, "Hey, Dr. Jones, how are you?" and waiting for them to generate things. I like having an agenda ahead of time and sending it to them ahead of time so that they know here's what you want to cover. You need to get answers on A, B, and C in order to then move forward. So they've had time to think about A, B, and C and answer that on the meeting. In addition to an agenda, if there are sections or comments they've made that aren't clear, that's on the agenda. When you say, "Give me more," does that mean I need more literature? Does that mean I need more about each of the articles I've done? Does that mean I need to integrate more? What is more so that I can give you what you need and save you time moving forward? Drop the word "help" in the comments, and I'll send you the link for our free dissertation help community.
