When a dissertation crosses my desk, I usually want to grab it by its
metaphorical lapels and give it a good shake. "You know something!" I
would say if it could hear me. "Now tell it to us in language we can
understand!"
Since its publication in 2005, From Dissertation to Book has helped
thousands of young academic authors get their books beyond the thesis
committee and into the hands of interested publishers and general
readers. Now revised and updated to reflect the evolution of scholarly
publishing, this edition includes a new chapter arguing that the future
of academic writing is in the hands of young scholars who must create
work that meets the broader expectations of readers rather than the
narrow requirements of academic committees.
At the heart of From Dissertation to Book is the idea that revising
the dissertation is fundamentally a process of shifting its focus from
the concerns of a narrow audience-a committee or advisors-to those of a
broader scholarly audience that wants writing to be both informative and
engaging. William Germano offers clear guidance on how to do this, with
advice on such topics as rethinking the table of contents, taming
runaway footnotes, shaping chapter length, and confronting the
limitations of jargon, alongside helpful timetables for light or heavy
revision.
Germano draws on his years of experience in both academia and publishing
to show writers how to turn a dissertation into a book that an audience
will actually enjoy, whether reading on a page or a screen. Germano also
acknowledges that not all dissertations can or even should become books
and explores other, often overlooked, options, such as turning them into
journal articles or chapters in an edited work.
With clear directions, engaging examples, and an eye for the
idiosyncrasies of academic writing, From Dissertation to Book reveals
to recent PhDs the secrets of careful and thoughtful revision-a skill
that will be truly invaluable as they add "author" to their curriculum
vitae.
