Tuning in at tutorials

My experience at a recent tutorial served as a good opportunity to articulate and re-consider my research processes.  I am aware that I sometimes get carried away with my thesis and begin to think that it hangs together nicely, is original, breaks new ground, is sound, and so on. 
My tutor offers support through a series of honest and gentle challenges related to draft chapters:

• "Consider your reader's sensibilities." 
• "Seek consent from your family to include certain details." 
• "Examiners at a viva might question your position on this... or your approach with that..." 

Challenges such as these help me to take stock, step away from the too-easily-flowing prose and return to the processes involved in scholarly research.  My tutorial helped me to realise that although my research includes narratives and poems, these must support the purpose and overall thesis of the research and arise out of meticulous and thorough processes. 
My tutor and I also discussed the data that I had chosen not to use.  I was concerned that this might offend the particular participant concerned.  I explained my reasons for leaving it out, and my tutor suggested that I return to it and analyse it in the same way that I had analysed the other data. 
Through discussions I understood why I should include the data for ethical reasons and to reveal further important threads that might otherwise be left out.
Tutorials help me to tune in and turn around, touch base and think again.