How to Write a Thesis

By (author)  Umberto Eco , Translated by  Caterina Mongiat Farina , Translated by  Geoff Farina , Introduction by  Francesco Erspamer

Format Paperback | 256 pages

Dimensions 134.62 x 198.12 x 20.32mm | 272.15g

Publication date 02 Jul 2015

Publisher MIT Press Ltd

Imprint MIT Press

Publication City/Country Cambridge, Mass., United States

Language English

Edition statement Translation

Illustrations note 27 tables

ISBN10 0262527138

ISBN13 9780262527132

內容簡介

著名小説作家兼學者艾柯告訴讀者寫論文之道而非簡單的寫作技巧

By the time Umberto Eco published his best-selling novel The Name of the Rose, he was one of Italy's most celebrated intellectuals, a distinguished academic and the author of influential works on semiotics. 

Some years before that, in 1977, Eco published a little book for his students, How to Write a Thesis, in which he offered useful advice on all the steps involved in researching and writing a thesis -- from choosing a topic to organizing a work schedule to writing the final draft. Now in its twenty-third edition in Italy and translated into seventeen languages, How to Write a Thesis has become a classic. 

Remarkably, this is its first, long overdue publication in English. Eco's approach is anything but dry and academic. He not only offers practical advice but also considers larger questions about the value of the thesis-writing exercise. How to Write a Thesis is unlike any other writing manual. It reads like a novel. It is opinionated. 

It is frequently irreverent, sometimes polemical, and often hilarious. Eco advises students how to avoid "thesis neurosis" and he answers the important question "Must You Read Books?" He reminds students "You are not Proust" and "Write everything that comes into your head, but only in the first draft." Of course, there was no Internet in 1977, but Eco's index card research system offers important lessons about critical thinking and information curating for students of today who may be burdened by Big Data. How to Write a Thesis belongs on the bookshelves of students, teachers, writers, and Eco fans everywhere. 

Already a classic, it would fit nicely between two other classics: Strunk and White and The Name of the Rose.ContentsThe Definition and Purpose of a ThesisChoosing the TopicConducting ResearchThe Work Plan and the Index CardsWriting the ThesisThe Final Draft

作者簡介

Umberto Eco is an Italian semiotician, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist.

He is the author of The Name of the Rose, Foucault's Pendulum, and The Prague Cemetery, all bestsellers in many languages, as well as a number of influential scholarly works.