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Abstract
Research degree student numbers in the United Kingdom have seen considerable growth in recent years. Along with this increase has come a concern to improve the quality of supervision students receive. Whilst there is a growing literature about supervision at this level, much of it is not grounded in empirical research. This article's aim is to add to the stock of empirical knowledge, by portraying the everyday routines of supervisors in the social sciences. These constitute a craft which is made up of a number of practices: balancing, foreseeing, timing, critiquing, informing and guiding. The paper depicts these practices in some detail, and then concludes with a discussion about the means by which such craft practice can be effectively transmitted to novice supervisors.
