info on research for Masters of Mental Health Sciences

In the process of signing up for the masters in mental health sciences.
Will be doing some research - found some info.
The research process
• Robert Dessaix. “Showing your Colours.” (and so forth). Sydney: Pan Macmillan/Picador (1998): 121-133.• Ann Game & Andrew Metcalfe. “Managing.” Passionate Sociology. London: Sage Publications (1996): 26-42.• Elspeth Probyn. “Writing Shame” [extract]. Blush: Faces of Shame. Sydney: University of New South Wales (2005): 129-43. (There is also a version of this chapter in The Affect Theory Reader!)
These readings were set when I inherited the course – although I am bringing them in a little earlier this year. They illustrate some issues in the research process that are worth highlighting from the outset, whether it is the terror of getting started, the pressure of living up to your research topic, or finding ways to stay motivated (especially when the profession can throw some tough breaks). Resilience is an asset that research students do well to acquire.
These articles also discuss anxieties about writing and the challenge of finding your “voice”. This is an issue that will come up again, I think, when we talk about writing and arguing in Week 5.
But there is an important subtitle I’ve added to the week’s outline for all of this discussion: “Habits, strategies and responsibilities.” It can be very confusing for students starting out in higher degrees to find a rhythm for their writing. Not only in terms of making their project seem important enough that they will dedicate significant amounts of time to it from Day One, but also learning to contextualise the project and not make it so all-consuming that it is the only thing in life.
Getting that balance right long term is really hard – maybe impossible! But one thing that helps is to recognise that the degree is an experience offered by an institution and that it has certain functions. The more you can learn about that institution, the easier time you will have recognising your own place in it – and the wider scheme of things.
What also helps in the writing process is to have an imagined reader. As a scholar, it is always wise to assume that it will not be a sympathetic one! But as was pointed out in class today, one of the most empowering reasons to write is in order to summon “a people to come”, if I am paraphrasing Deleuze correctly. So this is a matter of living with the tension of optimism versus cynicism and their variously mobilising qualities.
For my students, especially for the time being, their principal reader will be their supervisor – so it’s worth thinking carefully about the characteristics of this unique relationship, and how best to navigate it. This also relates to the previous point, because it is important for students to recognise the institutional pressures that working academics face if they are to get valuable and timely feedback.
I particularly welcome any anecdotes or relevant reading about the supervision relationship (or ‘advisor’ as it’s called in the US) from those following the discussion here.