build on a small amount of ‘ready-made knowledge’ (as
Schelling termed it),^5 picking and choosing those elements of
this text that are relevant for their problems. I hope that this
book may also help thesis advisers (with knowledge of a range
of doctoral projects in their own discipline) to extend and sys-
tematize their thinking and guidance to students about author-
ing issues. So this book is written as a foil for students and their
supervisors, as a grid or a framework which they can set against
their own situations and experiences.
I have written up this advice in a modest but not a tentative
way, because I know no other style that will seem honest or
convincing. For some readers there is a risk that my suggestions
may come across as overly slick or didactic, as if I am seeking to
dictate what squads of PhD students should do. But I am
acutely aware that readers always will and always should con-
struct their own personalized versions of this text, adapting and
domesticating what works for them, and setting to one side
what does not fit. I have written like someone devising a menu
for a restaurant, wanting to offer a treatment that is challeng-
ing and convincing, and an experience which is consistent and
as complete as possible. But I am conscious that no one (in their
right frame of mind) will pick up and consume more than a
fraction of this menu at a time.
Lastly let me stress that this book is to a large extent a con-
duit for the ideas of many student and staff colleagues, whose
wisdom and suggestions I have jotted down, adopted, tried out
and probably shamelessly purloined over the years. I owe my
heaviest debt to some 30 people who have worked with me on
their own doctorates across two and a bit decades. They have
taught me so much as they developed their ideas, not just about
their thesis topics but also about our joint profession.^6 In dif-
ferent ways, each of them will know the frailties and limitations
of supervisors all too well, and I can only ask their tolerance of
any gloss on their experience which this volume inadvertently
gives. My next biggest debt is to colleagues at the London School
of Economics and Political Science who have co-supervised
PhDs with me or co-taught the School-wide seminar on PhD
writing.^7 From their very different styles of teaching and encour-
aging, I have learned much. I am grateful also to a wide range of
other colleagues, who may recognize their own ideas and inputs
XII◆PREFACE