From Dissertation to Book
From Dissertation to Book Books
- ISBN13: 9780226288468
- Shape up: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
All new Phd’s hope that their dissertations can become books. But a dissertation is written for a group and a book for the larger world. William Germano’s From Dissertation to Book is the essential guide for academic writers who want to revise a doctoral thesis for publication. The author of Getting It Published, Germano draws upon his extensive experience in academic publishing to provide writers with a state-of-the-art view of how to turn a dissertation into a manuscript that publishers will notice.
Acknowledging first that not all theses can become books, Germano shows how some dissertations might have a better life as one or more journal articles or as chapters in a newly conceived book. But even dissertations strong enough to be published as books first need to become book manuscripts, and at the heart of From Dissertation to Book is the thought that revising the dissertation is a fundamental administer of adapting from one genre of writing to another.
Germano offers clear guidance on how to do just this. Writers will find advice on such topics as rethinking the table of contents, taming runaway footnotes, shaping chapter part, and confronting the limitations of jargon, alongside helpful timetables for light or heavy revision. With crisp directives, engaging examples, and a sympathetic eye for the foibles of academic writing, From Dissertation to Book reveals to recent PhD’s the administer of careful and thoughtful revision—a truly invaluable skill as they grow into their new roles as professional writers.
Acknowledging first that not all theses can become books, Germano shows how some dissertations might have a better life as one or more journal articles or as chapters in a newly conceived book. But even dissertations strong enough to be published as books first need to become book manuscripts, and at the heart of From Dissertation to Book is the thought that revising the dissertation is a fundamental administer of adapting from one genre of writing to another.
Germano offers clear guidance on how to do just this. Writers will find advice on such topics as rethinking the table of contents, taming runaway footnotes, shaping chapter part, and confronting the limitations of jargon, alongside helpful timetables for light or heavy revision. With crisp directives, engaging examples, and a sympathetic eye for the foibles of academic writing, From Dissertation to Book reveals to recent PhD’s the administer of careful and thoughtful revision—a truly invaluable skill as they grow into their new roles as professional writers.
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Blah, Blah, Blah….this book doesn’t even get to the core of the help one is seeking when buying this type of book until Chapter 5 and there are only 9 chapters in the book! There is a lot of repetition. Although the price isn’t terrible for this type of book, it may possibly have easily been written up in a one page checklist of all the things to do and not do. A far better resource for helping you turn your dissertation into a book is: Revising Your Dissertation; Advice From Leading Editors, Edited by Beth Luey. What Germano takes in 9 chapters to cover, Luey’s book covers it in the first chapter lonely and then continues to give you much more matter-of-fact advice.
On another note, although I know this wasn’t intentional, it surprised me to find that each time Germano used the third person, he often chose “she/her/herself” instead of using both (himself/herself). This caught my attention early on in the book because everytime the author described the author of the dissertation trying to turn it into a book, he referred to the novelist as a “she” and too often the mistakes that “She” made by the side of the way in submitting “her” non-revised disseration. Not until the end of the book Page 115 do you finally see Germano use the term “he/himself in combination with “her/herself” and in that instance it was a positive praise…”every dissertation novelist should strive to be the hero of her or his own work…” I just found it fascinating that the whole book saw the dissertation novelist as a “She” and often making mistakes, and finally when reaching the end, the success is given to both the “He and She” or the “He” lonely. I am surprised that the editor of this book didn’t catch that…I suppose both were not thought about their audience enough!
Anyways, its a fine book if you want to get your feet wet but there are better books out there that will give you the same advice but with more direction and less talk…and one positive note, even Germano, himself indicates further resources to turn to at the end of his book, including Luey’s book.
Rating: 2 / 5
I find this book immensely helpful and matter-of-fact in the day to day work of converting a dissertation into a book. I plotting I knew how to write a book, but I found many helpful tips and suggestions, and a wonderful sense of humor and grace in the author’s advice. I urge it highly.
Rating: 4 / 5
I don’t see that the book contributed anything substantially different from other books on non-fiction publishing. It offered more generalizations than specific, concrete suggestions. Perhaps for graduate students and students just submitting the dissertation, this book may possibly be helpful (It does, after all, initiate readers to the world of academic publishing); but, for those who have already begun work on the book manuscript or who have definitively made the choice (and have the support to do so), I reckon this book will be less helpful.
Rating: 3 / 5
Trying to organize my thoughts and goals after dying my dissertation has been a long, slow administer. This book outlines some of the typical pitfalls, identifies a step-by-step administer and has set up some guidelines I need to go ahead. Excellent luck to anyone trying for this!
Rating: 5 / 5
Even as offering some helpful advice on revising a dissertation from a writing perspective, I found this book to be a bit limited in its scope. The target audience was a narrow one: young scholars (the author emphasizes the word young at every opportunity, it seems) set on an academic career, wishing to publish through an academic press on the path to tenure. With the growing diversity of dissertation writers, some of whom are mid-career professionals, a broader perspective would seem more apt – for example, he absolutely glosses over the difference between approaches for trade press publication versus academic press, and how revisions might differ between them. Given that he continuously stresses how hard it is to get published, casting a broader net of options like that would seem helpful. It might also help reduce some of the repetitiveness of the text, which at time felt a bit preachy and condescending as well. That said, some of the specific advice about writing style was aptly on top, and very tactically helpful in the revision administer.
After buying a few similar reference books, I would urge “Revising your dissertation” edited by Beth Huey before this book. It has overlapping content, but in many ways seems more focused and more respectful – written from a peer-to-peer perspective, rather than from a “wiser than thou” advisor.
Rating: 3 / 5