here aims to help you follow instead the solid diagonal arrow
in Figure 5.1, moving more directly both to meet the content
standards of the PhD and to produce text which is accessible for
readers.
The message in Figure 5.1 can be made a bit more subtle by
noting that PhD authors (like academics in general) are profes-
sional communicators operating in a specialized environment.
There is no clear consensus on what constitutes good style, nor
is it feasible to envisage one in the future, because there are
multiple conflicting style pressures operating upon doctoral
students. The exact mix of these influences varies a good deal
from one discipline to another, sometimes from one time
period to another, and from one university location to the next.
But there is never any single resolution possible, no point
where everyone will agree. There is no ‘one best way’ out there
waiting to be discovered, only a balancing act to be achieved
with one piece of text, then struck afresh with the next.
Four main pressures will unambiguously influence you
towards producing text that can be easily appreciated; these are
shown in the left-hand column of Table 5.1: the more they are
emphasized the more accessible your text becomes:
◆ Structural considerations, such as those discussed in
Chapters 3 and 4, push you towards producing writing
with sufficient organizers, operating within a well-developed
overall framework, for your own sake as an author as well as
for readers.
◆ Logical and developmental pressuresoperate in a large number
of other ways, pushing you to chain your text together in a
closely connected fashion which readers can follow as they
move through it. Paragraphs articulate the argument as a
sequence of ‘unit of thought’ components (see the checklists
below for more on this issue). And there must be clear links
from one paragraph or one sentence to the next, so that the
argument builds up in a coherent fashion.
◆ Readabilitypressures are for a straightforwardly written text
using understandable language and simple grammatical
forms, again discussed below.
◆ Managing readers’ expectationsis a consideration which
encourages you to ask the ‘need to know’ question (‘What
106 ◆AUTHORING A PHD