Here's a link to an older thread, with some overlap in recommendations:
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=369&p=2887&hilit=dunleavy#p2887I found Bolker, Dunleavy, and a book called "Getting What You Came For" (author???) especially helpful.
Get clear up front on any style manual or style requirement of your school; this will save time later.
Use SA spelling at a SA school: it's polite and appreciated from an American, even if it's not strictly required at your particular school.
Bill is right: gotta LOVE YOUR TOPIC. There is an enormous amount of slog work in doing a doctoral thesis, and so the core of it better be something you get obnoxious about when drunk (says the teetotaler).Another poster here has a passionate intellectual addiction, and I have advised this other poster that his knowledge and
pothos (no, not
pathos) for the topic trumps more staid options.
All best to you: it's an exciting and scary time, this embarkation.
PS. Vyhmeister is crap. Don't bother.
Doing good, doing well, raising hope and raising hell. Janko Shave.
"Airplane music? Just like music for big bees, only louder."--Arnold Schoenberg