1. Getting Started

“What?” thought the Emperor. “I see nothing at all. This is terrible! Am I a fool? Am I not fit to be Emperor? Why, nothing worse could happen to me!” ... And he nodded his satisfaction as he gazed at the empty loom. Nothing would induce him to say that he could not see anything.—“The Emperor’s New Clothes,” Andersen’s Fairy Tales

WHAT DOES THE STORY of “The Emperor’s New Clothes” have to do with the purpose of this book, which is to help graduate students write theses or dissertations? In the well-known tale, two swindlers arrive at the Emperor’s palace, claiming that their cloth is invisible to anyone who is stupid or unfit for his job. The reality, of course, is that the cloth doesn’t exist. The swindlers pretend to spin, ...

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