The role of the supervisor as editor of the research candidate's work-in-progress is contentious. Apart from the fact that editing of exegeses and creative products requires different skills, more general questions persist, such as: How much editing should a supervisor do? To what depth of editing should she go? When does the edited thesis stop being the candidate's work and becomes a collaboration? The current context has raised new issues: there is pressure on research students to publish before completion of candidature. What is the supervisor's role as editor now? Today supervisors are asked to replicate the role of commercial editors; what are the academic implications of this? The commercial and the academic are coming together as publishing houses nuance their editing services and university creative writing schools take on more candidates. How might supervisors orient themselves to the new economic understandings and arrangements?