196 ◆AUTHORING A PHD
humanities subjects (like history) show not dissimilar trends.
And the days when university teaching consisted of academics
rereading from their previous works have long since gone.
There is a strong emphasis instead upon designing and pre-
senting even primarily textual materials in an accessible and
imaginative way. If you progress from your PhD into other
walks of professional life, like business or most professions, the
premium on graphical communication and on simple, readable
tables and charts is far greater than within universities. So han-
dling attention points well is a key life skill, not just a thesis
skill. In its own way it can be almost as important as the ability
to get things finished (and published), to which I now turn.