Authoring a PhD

You define the question, you deliver the answer
– a central prin-
ciple of the doctorate, making clear how it differs from earlier stages
of education where other people define the questions and you
deliver the answer. The principle also emphasizes the importance of
choosing and framing your central research question so as to mesh
closely with what your research will accomplish. Do not include any
elements in your research question that will not be addressed in sub-
stantive and (hopefully) original ways by your analysis. Do not have
elements of your research analysis or evidence that are not covered
by the statement of your key research question. [pp. 18–26]

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277
Notes
Opening epigraph
‘All rules for study …’, Friedrich Wilhem Joseph von Schelling, 
On University Studies
(Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 1966), trans-
lated by E. S. Morgan, edited with an Introduction by N. Guterman, 
p. 34.
Preface
1. Michael Oakeshott, ‘The study of “politics” in a university: An essay
in appropriateness’, in his 
Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays
(Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1991), p. 194. Originally published 1962.
2. John Stuart Mill, 
On Liberty
, Ch. 3, from the volume J. S. Mill,
Utilitarianism, Liberty and Representative Government
(London: Dent,
1968), p. 123. Originally published 1859.
3. Max Weber discussed bureaucratization most clearly in 
The Theory
of Social and Economic Organization
(London: William Hodge, 1947),
pp. 302–12. It was originally written in 1913.
4. Friedrich Wilhem Joseph von Schelling, 
On University Studies
(Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1966), translated by 
E. S. Morgan, edited with an Introduction by N. Guterman; Francis
Bacon,
The Advancement of Learning
(London: Dent, 1861), edited
by G. W. Kitchen.
5. Von Schelling, 
On University Studies
, p. 34.
6. I thank especially my supervisees who have completed doctorates:
Kate Ascher, Françoise Boucek, Ian Emsley, Raquel Galliego-
Calderon, Stephen Griggs, Gunnar Gunnarsson, Stephanie Hoopes,
Jaejuhn Joo, Won-Taek Kang, Tom Ioannou, Leo Keliher, Kuang-Wu

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2 7 8
◆
N O T E S
Koai, Helen Margetts, Andrew Massey, Rosa Mule, Mark Patterson,
John Peterson, Yvonne Rydin, Richard Sandlant, James Stanyer,
Helen Thompson, Carol Vielba, John Xavier, Andrew Webster,
Daniel Wincott and Spencer Zifcak. I am grateful also to Kiyoko
Iwasaki, Gita Subrahmanyam and Pieter Vanhuysse, whose doctor-
ates were still ongoing at the time of writing. I learnt a lot also from:
Davina Cooper, Penny Law, Abigail Melville and Anne Meyel.
Amongst LSE people who were not my supervisees, I benefited from
conversations with Richard Heffernan, Andrew Hindmoor, Rolf
Hoijer and Oliver James.
7. I thank especially: Martin Bulmer (now at the University of
Southampton), Keith Dowding, George Gaskell, Michael Hebbert
(now at the University of Manchester), George Jones, Paul Kelly,
Peter Loizos, Helen Margetts (now at the School of Public Policy,
University College, London), Brendan O’Leary (now at the
University of Pennsylvania), Anne Power, James Putzel and Yvonne
Rydin. I am especially indebted to Liz Barnett and her supportive
staff in the LSE’s Teaching and Learning Development Office for
their extended help and assistance. I thank also Andy Northedge
(Open University).
8. Plato quoted in Ernest Dimnet, 
Art of Thinking
(London: Cape, 
1929), p. 95.
Chapter 1
Becoming an author
1. Alain de Botton,