Authoring a PhD

everyone
in that role or with that characteris-
tic behaves in the way cited, a claim that is almost always bound
to be wrong and is additionally never provable. Some bureaucrats
are no doubt interested in slacking, but we could never establish
that
all
are, just as some writers will be happy and others miser-
able. Any author who uses the archetypal singular, in virtually
any context, will immediately degrade her intellectual grip on
whatever she is discussing, debasing her reasoning to a sub-
professional level and affecting adversely the accuracy of her text.
When discussing collective entities use plural forms of phrasing,
such as: ‘Politicians are interested only in re-election.’ The great
virtue of the plural form is that as soon as you read this sentence,
a question will occur to you: Do I mean 
all
politicians,
most
politicians,
some
politicians, or 
normal
politicians? And then you
might further ask: What evidence or other argumentative token
can I offer to corroborate my claim? In this way you might end
up with worthwhile empirical propositions that positively build
your doctorate – whereas any sentence including an archetypal
singular can only be a corrosive liability.
A miscellany of other minor but common errors in theses are
discussed in the style guide books listed in 
Further Reading
on p. 289. Be careful in using other well-known style guides 
that are now quite old: they tend to be more tolerant of com-
plex grammatical forms and overlong sentences than current
professional standards. And they often mix up advice for 
W R I T I N G C L E A R LY
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creative fiction writers with that for non-fiction authors. The
sources I recommend are worth consulting, but do also bear in
mind the caveats I make about each book and the general need
not to overdo a search for style improvements. Let me close by
briefly pulling out just one instance of this detailed advice here,
concerning capitalizing words and acronyms. It is best to min-
imize the use of capitals in your text for two reasons. Capitals
tend to make the text less readable, especially when used in
headings for sections or for tables, charts and diagrams. Try to
keep all these elements in lower case after the first letter, except
for proper nouns that are normally capitalized. In addition,
most journals and book publishers pursue a minimum capital-
ization policy, so that you will reduce later editing changes by
following this pattern in your text from the outset. Be careful
also about the use of acronyms in your thesis. A page with lots
of acronyms, that is, with many organizations or concepts
reduced to initials, will be less readable than normal text. Only
use acronyms for specialized concepts that recur a lot (at least
three or four times) and choose the simplest form of the
acronym possible (for instance, Nato or NATO, but not
N.A.T.O.). Each acronym should be carefully explained on first
use, and if you start reusing it after a period when it has not
been present. Consider sometimes using substitute words or
descriptors instead of an acronym on pages where it appears a
lot: it will make your text easier for readers. You must also post
a comprehensive glossary of acronyms and abbreviations at the
start of your thesis, placed just after the contents page and the
lists of tables or figures, so that bemused readers can remind
themselves what you are referring to.
Effective referencing
When a thing has been said, and said well, 
have no scruple. Take it and copy it.