This work is a guide to the process and techniques of doing effective academic writing, using the step-by-step process of creating a PhD dissertation as a model. The core idea behind the principles in this guide is the ordering of material in a piece of writing based on how general or specific it is relative to other material in that piece of writing and how to move smoothly between areas of more or less generalness or specificity, with the goal that a well-designed piece of writing will, ultimately resemble an hourglass with the more general parts being wider and the less general parts being narrower. While the PhD dissertation is used as the main model in this work, it also explains how the processes and techniques explained here can be adapted to other types of writing by making the work, or certain sections of it longer or shorter, or slightly changing the focus.