|
|
|
Book Review
| Revising Your Dissertation: Advice from Leading Editors. Edited by Beth Luey. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. vii + 255 pp. Includes bibliographical references and index. Cloth $49.95, paper $16.95.
|
| This collection of thirteen essays, most of them by editors at university presses, is the most recent book designed to help new PhDs revise their dissertations for publication. The title page editor, Beth Luey, is founding director of the Scholarly Publishing Program located in the History Department at Arizona State University and author of the highly regarded Handbook for Academic Authors (1987; 4th ed., Cambridge University Press, 2004). |
1
|
|
The book is divided into two sections, the first providing general information addressed to scholars in all disciplines, the second directed to specific fields: humanities, social sciences, sciences, and arts. Most of the emphasis is on turning a dissertation into a scholarly book, but there is also advice on how to draw articles from a dissertation, and there is one chapter on professional publishing. The book ends with a list of answers to frequently asked questions, such as "How many illustrations can I include?" "When should I start looking for a publisher?" "How long does it take to get a book published?" |
2
|
|
The collection includes some gems: Beth Luey's "What Is Your Book About?" provides fictional case studies to show different ways one might consider revising the same dissertation. In "Time to Trim," Jenya Weinreb offers excellent suggestions for cutting and tightening annotation. While Judy Metro's "Illustrated Ideas" is primarily addressed to scholars in the visual arts, many of her comments—on permissions, fees, and the comparative advantages and disadvantages of photos gathered in an insert or interspersed in the text— would also be valuable to historians who plan to include a selection of illustrations in their book. Luey's concluding chapter, "The Ticking Clock," offers practical advice for establishing and sticking to a timetable that will meet tenure requirements, and includes an amusing and right-on analysis of procrastination and mental block and how to deal with them. |
3
|
|
There are also drawbacks, many of them typical of multiauthor books. There is quite a bit of repetition of basic information and advice: the difference between the purpose and audience of a dissertation and those of a book; the necessity of cutting back literature discussions; how to choose a publisher and submit a manuscript. A lot of the advice offered to authors in the humanities would apply just as well to scholars in the social sciences and vice versa. Scott Norton's "Turning Your Dissertation Rightside Out" is an interesting intellectual exercise but might be more daunting than helpful to a recent PhD. Once in a while there is disagreement among the contributors: William Sisler would prefer that bibliographies be dropped, while others just ask that they be trimmed. Peter Dougherty and Charles Myers (social sciences) suggest querying prospective publishers with a four- or five-page prospectus, while Jennifer Crewe (humanities) feels that a one-page summary letter is more appropriate. And very occasionally the advice is debatable: for example, the contributors who mention discursive notes disapprove of them, but many other editors would approve the judicious use of such notes. |
4
|
|
Overall, Revising Your Dissertation provides a valuable service, but new PhDs might want to first read Beth Luey's single chapter on revised dissertations in her Handbook for Academic Authors or the much briefer compilation of essays in The Thesis and the Book, edited by Eleanor Harman et al. (1976; 2nd ed., University of Toronto Press, 2003). |
5
|
|
After many years as managing editor at the University of Washington Press, Julidta Tarver is now semi-retired and working part-time for the press as acquisitions editor in environmental and regional history. |
Content in the History Cooperative database is intended for personal, noncommercial use only. You may not reproduce, publish, distribute, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, modify, create derivative works from, display, or in any way exploit the History Cooperative database in whole or in part without the written permission of the copyright holder.
|