A basic theme of this book is that authoring skills are a crucial element to completing a successful doctorate. They are fundamental in achieving a coherent, joined-up argument for your thesis. Proficiency in authoring can also help you meet the requirements of 'originality' and making a substantive contribution to the development of a discipline, which are still key criteria for awarding a doctorate in good universities. And acquiring authoring capabilities is very important in finishing a doctorate on time and avoiding the long delays for which PhD students were once notorious.