This paper seeks to re-conceptualize the research supervision relationship. The literature has tended to view doctoral study in four ways: (a) as an exercise in self-management, (b) as a research experience, (c) as training for research, or (d) as an instance of student-centred learning. Although each of these approaches has merit, they also suffer from conceptual weaknesses. This paper seeks to harness the merits, and minimize the disadvantages, by re-conceptualizing doctoral research as a "writing journey." The paper utilizes the insights of new rhetoric in linguistic theory to defend a writing-centered conception of supervised research and offers some practical strategies on how it might be put into effect.