The analysis of exemplars is a potentially powerful way of acquainting students with academic standards and supporting their capacities to make informed academic judgements. This paper investigates the role of dialogue in supporting students to develop their appreciation of the nature of quality work. The research derives from a project involving nine teachers in a Faculty of Education, and uses data from a single case to analyse the dialogic use of exemplars. The findings illustrate how the teacher prioritised student talk and withheld his own evaluative judgements in the management of the discussion. A related dilemma lies in the balance between the student voice in constructing their views on the nature of quality and explicit teacher guidance. The main significance of the paper lies in its description of how exemplars dialogue can be orchestrated, and a discussion of some of the main features of the dialogue.