Many, perhaps most, working academics might doubt that much useful can be said about the generic skills involved in authoring- outside the context of each particular discipline. Hence in offering advice about authoring to their students most university teachers and supervisors have had few credible resources to hand. Many advisers must draw largely on their own experience, of supervising earlier students, or perhaps of being a PhD student themselves up to three decades ago. This neglect of authoring skills is not universal. The editors of academic journals and most publishers of university-level books can and do draw a distinction between people's prowess in a discipline and their proficiency as writers. They recognize that good researchers can be bad writers, and that uninspiring researchers can still be good writers, interpreters and communicators. But the thrust of much doctoral education none the less remains that if you get the research right then the writing aspect will somehow just fall naturally into place.