Thesis support checklist: what to prepare before you ask for help

Collect your university's own guidelines first

The requirements that matter are the ones your own institution currently applies, and they can differ between universities, between faculties and between intake years. Generic advice found online is not a substitute, so start from the documents your department issues for your degree and confirm anything unclear with your supervisor.

• The thesis or dissertation handbook for your degree and year of registration
• The required chapter structure and any word-count limits per chapter
• Formatting rules: margins, line spacing, font, page numbering and heading levels
• The required citation style and reference list format
• Title page, declaration, abstract and table-of-contents templates
• Submission deadlines, extension rules and the required file format
• Your institution's academic integrity and similarity-checking policy

If your current handbook conflicts with a template or an older thesis you have seen, follow the handbook version that applies to you. Where it is silent or ambiguous, ask your supervisor or programme office in writing and keep the reply, so the requirement you worked to can be evidenced at submission.

Prepare your current draft honestly

Send what you actually have, not a tidied version. An unfinished methodology chapter with gaps marked is far more useful than a polished introduction that hides where the work really stands.

• One consolidated document rather than a folder of fragments, if possible.
• Comments or highlights marking sections you know are incomplete or uncertain.
• Your reference library export, or at least the sources already cited.
• Your data, instrument or analysis files if the thesis includes empirical work.
• Any earlier similarity report, if your department has already run one.

Note the word count you have and the word count you need. A chapter that must grow from 2,000 to 8,000 words is a different piece of work from one that needs tightening, and the difference should be visible before anyone quotes for it.

Bring your supervisor's feedback with you

Supervisor comments are the single most valuable input to any support conversation, because they define what your examiner-facing standard actually is. Collect the tracked-changes files, emailed comments and your own notes from meetings, and put them in one place.

It helps to group the feedback into three lists: points you understand and can act on, points you understand but do not know how to implement, and points you do not understand at all. The second and third lists are where external support is most useful, and sharing them keeps the work aimed at what your supervisor has asked for rather than at generic improvements.

Keep your supervisor informed about the support you are using. Most departments expect this, and it avoids a situation where advice from two sources pulls a chapter in opposite directions.

Define the scope before work starts

Vague scope is where most disappointment comes from. Write down exactly which chapters or tasks are included, what each one should look like when it is finished, and the date each part is needed.

• Which chapters or sections the support covers, named explicitly
• The type of support for each: guidance, structural feedback, language editing, formatting, or analysis
• The deliverable for each part — a marked-up draft, a formatted document, an output file, or written notes
• The deadline for each part, working back from your submission date
• How many rounds of revision are included
• The price agreed before work begins
• How files will be exchanged and how questions will be answered

Keep authorship and integrity with you

Your thesis has to be your own work, and you have to be able to defend every claim, method and result in it. Support should therefore make your reasoning clearer and your writing stronger, not replace your thinking with someone else's.

In practice that means asking for feedback, structural guidance, language editing, formatting and technical help with analysis — and then making the substantive decisions and revisions yourself. Read and understand every change before you accept it. If you cannot explain a paragraph, a citation or a statistical result in your own words, it should not stay in your thesis.

Check your institution's policy on what third-party assistance is permitted and whether it must be declared. Rules vary, particularly on proofreading and on the use of AI writing tools, and following your own institution's rules is your responsibility as the author.

How to start the conversation

When you get in touch, a short message covering these points is usually enough for a clear answer on scope, timeline and price.

• Your degree level, discipline and university requirements.
• Your topic in one or two sentences.
• The stage you are at and what is already written.
• The specific help you want, chapter by chapter.
• Your submission deadline and any interim supervisor deadlines.