These students could be in daily contact with their supervisors. Supervisors in such situations often have weekly assessments of their students' progress. Since the thesis is the ultimate decider in awarding a higher degree based on research, the process of learning to write a thesis is an important part of a research student's development. For most research students, writing a thesis is like travelling through uncharted waters and they may need timely directions. This does not mean that the supervisors have to 'spoon-feed' their students.
Many supervisors ask probing questions so that the student realises weaknesses in an argument.
This is not unlike academics posing challenging questions to one another. Feedback on writing conventions in one chapter could be expected to improve the quality of future chapters. Formative thesis assessment may save both the supervisor's and student's time, for it could reduce the number of revisions and minimise the situations where the supervisor feels they are writing the student's thesis for them. Supervising the PhD - A guide to success. Responses advancing the scholarly debate of issues raised will be published in the Web version of that issue.