Hi, I could really do with some advice please. My supervisor is a micromanager. I haven't been doing my PhD long so I've ignored it. I sent some work to her yesterday and she returned it with a couple of comments. Fair enough. But as I began revising I noticed that not only had she changed my paragraph structure - she had rewritten chunks of it without telling me. What do I do? She has form for this. Another PhD student complained about the supervisor disrespecting their work and he was kicked out.

Are you sure you have the 'final show mark up' option selected in Word?

She might have done it using track changes but you just can't see it.

And I agree with Hugh, I love it when supervisors rewrite my sentences because it helps me to improve my writing. Sometimes they edit it incorrectly as well, which generally shows the way I have written it is so unclear that even they can't understand what I'm on about, which is also very helpful!

If you don't like it though, just tell her. Say that you are grateful for her comments but everyone has their own writing style... but if you get picked up on in your viva for poor writing you would then only have yourself to blame...

Ha! I am more than happy to get feedback on my writing - that isn't the issue. And track changes was on so I noticed the comments. My worry is that she made some fairly substantial changes that I only saw by accident because I bothered to read the whole thing rather than just do what she asked me to do - and she hadn't finished so it read worse than it did before! This is part of a pattern but it's a new development. I think I'll try and make a joke about it. I know I'm lucky that she is so involved...but there is a limit!

I wouldn't like someone re-writing my work. I once (at MSc level) had a supervisor who inserted errors into my writing by making 'corrections'! I would probably have to find a way of asking her to track any changes/suggestions she had.