How do I ask my dissertation supervisor to distinguish essential revisions from ideas for expanding the project?
Education"You might also look at the earlier decade," my supervisor wrote. I added it to the list, then counted four suggestions that would each mean opening a new set of newspaper archives.
My master's history dissertation has eight weeks left. The agreed proposal covers how one local paper reported the opening and first years of a cinema. I've drafted the main chapters within that period. The new feedback may reveal that my background section is too thin, but I can't tell whether the earlier decade is necessary context or an interesting extension.
I keep replying "I'll look into that," because I don't want to seem resistant. Now my work plan contains more reading than writing, and none of the additions has a clear limit.
How can I ask which changes are essential without sounding as though I only want to do the minimum? I can bring a revised timetable. I also need to stop promising a larger dissertation than the one I can finish.