There are many different ways in which your writing will generate readers' expectations. Any accessible piece of text longer than a few pages must include ‘orientating devices’, ways of giving advance notice of what is to come (discussed in detail in chapters 3 and 4). In addition academic dissertations usually require a very developed apparatus for situating the particular work undertaken in a wider context of scholarly endeavour. In a 'big book' thesis the most important signalling elements are a review of the previous literature, and one or more theoretical chapters. In any research dissertation or paper readers look very carefully at the author's own statements of what their study will accomplish. Readers become disappointed when authors do not give any indications Of what is to come in later chapters, sections or paragraphs; or signal that something will arrive and then it never does; or deliver something different from what was signaled; or draw them into spending time on a project which turns out differently from what they thought. Each of these outcomes makes readers worry: perhaps the author does not know what she thinks, does not understand the topic she has set out to tackle? The implication soon follows: perhaps this book or article is not worth my time or attention? For thesis examiners or a dissertation committee this feeling may very easily spill over into: maybe this thesis does not meet the standard that a doctorate should? Hence for PhD students, more than for most authors, these are dangerous thoughts to engender