The process by which a dissertation becomes a book has several intermediate stages, the most important of which is the transformation from one kind of unpublished manuscript into another, that is, from an unpublished Ph.D. thesis into an as-yet-unpublished book manuscript The manuscript-style thesis/dissertation format is available to doctoral students whose final, completed dissertation will consist of two or more manuscripts or articles. This may include articles already published, submitted, or to be submitted to peer-reviewed journals May 30, · Conventional wisdom holds that graduate students should start publishing in journals before they try to turn their dissertation into a book. Get a couple of chapters out there as articles, and
Manuscripts Based on Dissertations | McGill-Queen’s University Press
You are currently shopping in our Canadian store. For orders outside of Canada, please switch to our international store. International and US orders are billed in US dollars. We are pleased to provide examination or desk copies to professors. Book publication does not inevitably follow a successfully defended dissertation in the social sciences and humanities and it is not the only option available to scholars who wish to see their research disseminated more widely.
Yet it is true that a book is a singular and enduring form of intellectual and literary expression. If you believe that the subject and ideas of your dissertation research deserve to be more widely circulated in book form, and that the extensive work of revision is a worthwhile investment of your time, dissertation book manuscript, we would be pleased to receive a manuscript proposal from you.
Although many excellent books originate in dissertation research, the thesis and the book are different. Where the dissertation is an exercise in which you demonstrate your command of your field and your ability to advance knowledge in the field to a select group of five or six people, the book is about the communication of your ideas to a wider readership.
This audience may still be somewhat specialized but could include scholars from different areas, graduate and undergraduate students, and others interested in your subject. The question of readership is an important one for publishers as they consider the potential market for your work. Where your thesis committee was obliged to read your dissertation, dissertation book manuscript, future readers must choose to read your book, dissertation book manuscript.
More important than your extensive documentation, literature review, and detailed methodology are the ideas that guided your research and that were developed in the writing of your dissertation—ideas that you think can capture the interest of a wider community of readers. Foregrounding these ideas, dissertation book manuscript, and shedding some of the layers of scholarly armour that characterize most dissertations, are the goals of dissertation book manuscript. The revision process is necessarily individual—it will depend on the nature of your dissertation and on your particular objectives for the book.
For extended consideration of these points, we suggest some further reading below, dissertation book manuscript. While some dissertations need minimal reconsideration and rewriting as manuscripts, dissertation book manuscript, most require a fair bit of both.
Generally speaking, it may be helpful to think of dissertation revisions in three categories: content, structure, and style. First, with respect to content: dissertations are often narrow in scope and tightly focused.
On the other hand, does the dissertation contain any peripheral sections or weaker chapters that should be left out? Although it can be hard to let go of whole chapters, you may find that you can shape a more coherent book manuscript by drawing on your strongest dissertation dissertation book manuscript, rather than all of them. Pay close attention to the critical discussion that takes place during the oral defence and to the feedback you receive through external evaluations.
In most cases, these elements do not advance the argument or enhance the readability dissertation book manuscript a manuscript, and should be removed. Second, the structure and organization of dissertation book manuscript dissertation will likely be different from the book. A dissertation does not necessarily have dissertation book manuscript narrative arc and in some cases its chapters stand alone as self-contained arguments with their own introductory and concluding sections.
Not all readers read a book from beginning to end, but writers are obliged to write as if they do. The readers dissertation book manuscript your book should be aware that they are following a developing argument in which each chapter builds on the previous ones in dissertation book manuscript logical, satisfying way.
The internal organization of individual chapters may also require reconsideration. In some disciplines, dissertations are characterized by truncated sections with numerous sub-headings, which are itemized in the table of contents. This gives readers ready access to the precise information they are looking for, and it may be helpful to divide your chapters into several sections, but excessive sub-heading breaks the flow of a narrative and can mask an underlying organizational weakness.
Third, dissertations are not always written with attention to style and the eloquent communication of ideas; they are arguments that need to be defended and, as a result, may be written somewhat defensively.
Happily, unlike the members of a dissertation committee, the readers of books are generally not scrutinizing for weaknesses, dissertation book manuscript. Although scholarly books should not dissertation book manuscript chatty or informal, and must meet the highest scholarly standard, the best ones are well-written, clear, remain in the active voice, avoid redundancy, and minimize the use of jargon while respecting disciplinary norms.
There is also a practical consideration facing publishers of which authors should be aware: dissertations are readily available in electronic format via ProQuest and through universities themselves.
As a result, libraries have become cautious about buying books based on dissertations. Since libraries are the major purchasers of scholarly books, dissertation book manuscript, their selectivity makes it even more important that an author takes the dissertation to a different level in the book manuscript, dissertation book manuscript, and makes it new.
Indeed, a book that is the result of a well-revised dissertation will leave no doubt among your fellow scholars that it, rather than the thesis, is the authoritative statement of your scholarly work, dissertation book manuscript. If you are willing to invest the necessary time and work in your revisions, we will do our best to help you the rest of the way. For more information on the process of dissertation revision, you may wish to consult the following resources: Revising Your Dissertation: Advice from Leading Editors edited by Beth Luey University of California Press,From Dissertation to Book by William Germano University of Chicago Press, and The Thesis and the Book by Eleanor Harman et al.
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Turning your dissertation into a book
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The Manuscript-style format of a dissertation is available to doctoral students whose final, completed dissertation will consist of two or more manuscripts or articles. This may include articles already published, submitted, or to be submitted to peer-reviewed journals but should contain at least one accepted manuscript relevant to the dissertation research. If not, approval must be obtained by the May 30, · Conventional wisdom holds that graduate students should start publishing in journals before they try to turn their dissertation into a book. Get a couple of chapters out there as articles, and Manuscripts Based on Dissertations. Book publication does not inevitably follow a successfully defended dissertation in the social sciences and humanities and it is not the only option available to scholars who wish to see their research disseminated more widely. Yet it is true that a book is a singular and enduring form of intellectual and literary expression
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