Novice researchers are expected to participate through writing in the particular discourse community in which their research is located, yet if they come from other languages and other academic cultures and traditions than those of the education provider, they may experience the process of writing as the process of silencing their voices. Many supervisors of such researchers face the dilemma of encouraging compliance with the dominant conventions — opting thus for the safety of homogeneity — or of fostering greater diversity in voice and discourse organisation, opting thus for the risk of negative reader response. Through retrospective and introspective reflections by the authors, using sociocultural and postcolonial perspectives on academic writing, we explore the processes we used in negotiating Ha's representation of self in her novice research writing. We look in particular at the roles a supervisor and student can play in helping a writer to make informed choices about ways of making meaning that satisfy her intentions, so that the writer's own voice can grow. We also trace how this initiative contributed to a gradual process of recognition of greater diversity in writing by the academic community in the institution where we work, and discuss how this represents an ethical approach to academic writing.