This book covers things the other books don't tell you about doing a PhD - what it's really like and how to come through it with a happy ending! It covers all the things you wish someone had told you before you started:

What a PhD is really about, and how to do one well
The "unwritten rules" of research and of academic writing
What your supervisor actually means by terms like "good referencing" and "clean research question"
How to write like a skilled researcher
How academic careers really work

This book turns lost, clueless students back into people who know what they are doing, and who can enjoy life again. A great companion to How To Get A PhD or How to Write a Thesis, and a thoughtful present for someone thinking of doing a PhD or tangled up in one.

So you want to do a PhD
Procedures and milestones
The System
Supervision
Networks
Reading
Paper types
Writing
Writing structure
Writing style
The process of writing
Presentations
Research design
The viva
Conferences
What next?
Useful terms, useful principles and the like

We would like to congratulate the anonymous winner of the competition to track down the quotations in the Unwritten Rules. To put everyone out of their misery, all the quotations and their sources are given below. Just in case anyone wants to have one last try, and is able to resist the temptation to peek, we've started this section with some tips about ways of tracking down quotations of this sort. We would like to thank all the entrants; we hope that your future searches are swift and successful, and that your research is fruitful, enjoyable, and rewarded with proper appreciation by your colleagues.

Some tips

A good place to start is with the most unusual words. The phrase about tricing puddings athwart the starboard gumbrils is pretty unusual, and a few minutes on the Internet should track down the author for that quotation. A lot of the other quotations are in similar style, and also have a nautical theme and/or appear to relate to the same period, so it's a fair bet they'll also be by the same author. Some more searching should show that there are quite a few books by the same author, leaving you with the choice of either working through all of them, or of finding a friend of a friend who is a fan of that author, and sweet-talking them overa cup of coffee into giving you a hand.

Another unusual word is "paidhi". That should again find you the author, and the set of books from which the quotation probably came; again, your best bet is to find a fan and ask them for help. Any fan who has read that set of books will probably remember the episode, and be able to track it down fairly quickly.

That leaves the quotation about someone who wrote in a complicated style, overloaded and lacking in charm. That's a mean one, since it doesn't have any proper nouns or rare words to give you a way in. An indirect way in would be to look at which authors are mentioned by name in the Unwritten Rules and see if any of those names might give you a lead (since authors often cite the same source more than once, so an unattributed quote may be from the same source as an attributed one nearby). We don't mention many authors by name - Kafka, Lovecraft, a handful more - so it won't take long. If you type each name in turn into a search engine, together with the phrase "writing style" then you should soon find one whose style is described as "austere" or some equally unflattering synonym. A quick browse through the library's copy of the edition mentioned in the Unwritten Rules will turn up the relevant quote in the introduction.

. it were insidious to particularize; but I must acknowledge the politeness of Mons . La Hire, of the royal French artillery, who volunteered his services in setting and firing the train to the magazine, and who was somewhat bruised and singed.

.take this woman out of Bren-paidhi's way, or face administrative procedures.

He wrote in a complicated style, overloaded and lacking in charm. Not that he was indifferent to language and its nuances; on the contrary, correct use of language was for him a moral question, its debasement a symptom of moral breakdown.

. I shall publish such papers on the cryptogams of Kamschatka that no one will ever set the mark of intelligence upon my head again.

Still, it gave the facts - some of them - and apart from being dated 'off Barcelona ' in the customary way, whereas it was really being written in Port Mahon the day after his arrival, it contained no falsehood.

Only yesterday I learnt, to my surprise, that you trice puddings athwart the starboard gumbrils, when sailing by and large.

. he was no more consistent than other men, and in spite of his liberal principles and his dislike of constituted authority he was capable of petulant tyranny when confronted with a slime-draught early in the morning.

Opening sections:
.I had said much, but found that my words had been given scant attention.
Lovecraft, H.P. (1917) Dagon.
in: Lovecraft, H.P. Omnibus 2: Dagon and Other Macabre Tales (1985)
Grafton Books, London . p. 17

. it were insidious to particularize; but I must acknowledge the politeness of Mons . La Hire, of the royal French artillery, who volunteered his services in setting and firing the train to the magazine, and who was somewhat bruised and singed.
O'Brian, P. (1990) Master and Commander
W.W. Norton & Company, London . p. 225

Chapter 1:
You can't imagine, even from what you have read and what I've told you, the things I shall have to see and do. It's fiendish work, Carter, and I doubt if any man without ironclad sensibilities could ever see it through and come up alive and sane.
Lovecraft, H.P. (1919) The Statement of Randolph Carter
in: Lovecraft, H.P. Omnibus 1: At the Mountains of Madness (1989)
Grafton Books, London . p. 356

Chapter 2:
.take this woman out of Bren-paidhi's way, or face administrative procedures.
Cherryh, C.J. (1996). Invader.
Legend Books, London , p.16

Chapter 3:
It was here that he first came into conflict with the authorities, and was debarred from future experiments by no less a dignitary than the dean of the medical school himself.
Lovecraft, H.P. (1921-1922) Herbert West- Reanimator
in: Lovecraft, H.P. Omnibus 2: Dagon and Other Macabre Tales (1985)
Grafton Books, London . p. 159

Chapter 4:
Could that fellow have me whipped?
O'Brian, P. (1990) Master and Commander
W.W. Norton & Company, London . p. 122

Chapter 5:
The first horrible incident of our acquaintance was the greatest shock I ever experienced, and it is only with reluctance that I repeat it.
Lovecraft, H.P. (1921-1922) Herbert West- Reanimator
in: Lovecraft, H.P. Omnibus 2: Dagon and Other Macabre Tales (1985)
Grafton Books, London . p. 158

Chapter 6:
. those frightful parts of the Pnakotic Manuscripts which were too ancient to be read.
Lovecraft, H.P. (1921) The Other Gods
in: Lovecraft, H.P. Omnibus 2: Dagon and Other Macabre Tales (1985)
Grafton Books, London . p. 149

Chapter 7:
Alien it indeed was to all art and literature which sane and balanced readers know.
Lovecraft, H.P. (1922) The Hound
in: Lovecraft, H.P. Omnibus 2: Dagon and Other Macabre Tales (1985)
Grafton Books, London . p. 200

Chapter 8:
He wrote in a complicated style, overloaded and lacking in charm. Not that he was indifferent to language and its nuances; on the contrary, correct use of language was for him a moral question, its debasement a symptom of moral breakdown.
Thucydides, Warner, R. & Finley, M.I. (1954). History of the Peloponnesian War. Penguin, Harmondsworth.

. I shall publish such papers on the cryptogams of Kamschatka that no one will ever set the mark of intelligence upon my head again.
O'Brian, P. (1996) HMS Surprise
HarperCollins, London . p. 27

Chapter 9:
Still, it gave the facts - some of them - and apart from being dated 'off Barcelona ' in the customary way, whereas it was really being written in Port Mahon the day after his arrival, it contained no falsehood.
O'Brian, P. (1990) Master and Commander
W.W. Norton & Company, London . p. 335

Chapter 10:
Its tone of semi-literate, official, righteous dullness never varied. and it never deviated into human prose.
O'Brian, P. (1990) Master and Commander
W.W. Norton & Company, London . p. 152

Chapter 11:
'Now just listen to this one, will you,' he said, 'and tell me whether it is good grammar and proper language.'
O'Brian, P. (1990) Master and Commander
W.W. Norton & Company, London . p. 225

Chapter 12:
My formerly silent tongue waxed voluble with the easy grace of a Chesterfield or the godless cynicism of a Rochester . I displayed a peculiar erudition utterly unlike the fantastic, monkish lore over which I had pored in my youth.
Lovecraft, H.P. (1917) The Tomb
in: Lovecraft, H.P. Omnibus 2: Dagon and Other Macabre Tales (1985)
Grafton Books, London . p. 25

Chapter 13:
I have brought to light a monstrous abnormality, but I did it for the sake of knowledge.
Lovecraft, H.P. (1943) The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
in: Lovecraft, H.P. Omnibus 1: At the Mountains of Madness (1989)
Grafton Books, London . p. 236

Chapter 14:
Once I sought out a celebrated ethnologist and amused him with peculiar questions regarding the ancient Philistine legend of Dagon, the Fish-God; but soon perceiving that he was hopelessly conventional, I did not press my inquiries.
Lovecraft, H.P. (1917) Dagon
in: Lovecraft, H.P. Omnibus 2: Dagon and Other Macabre Tales (1985)
Grafton Books, London . p. 17

Chapter 15:
When I drew nigh the nameless city, I knew it was accursed.
Lovecraft, H.P. (1921) The Nameless City
in: Lovecraft, H.P. Omnibus 2: Dagon and Other Macabre Tales (1985)
Grafton Books, London . p. 129

Chapter 16:
This terror is not due altogether to the sinister nature of his recent disappearance, but was engendered by the whole nature of his life-work.
Lovecraft, H.P. (1921-1922) Herbert West- Reanimator
in: Lovecraft, H.P. Omnibus 2: Dagon and Other Macabre Tales (1985)
Grafton Books, London . p. 158

Useful terms:
Only yesterday I learnt, to my surprise, that you trice puddings athwart the starboard gumbrils, when sailing by and large.
O'Brian, P. (1981) The Ionian Mission
HarperCollins, London . p. 83

Further reading:
. he was no more consistent than other men, and in spite of his liberal principles and his dislike of constituted authority he was capable of petulant tyranny when confronted with a slime-draught early in the morning.
O'Brian, P. (1981) The Ionian Mission
HarperCollins, London . pp. 70-71

Another useful quote:
I know just where the sea-elephants are stored
O'Brian, P. (1996) The Fortune of War
HarperCollins, London . p. 225