How to Write a Thesis

Eco, Umberto

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0262527138 ISBN 13: 9780262527132

Casa editrice: Mit Pr, 2015

Umberto Eco's wise and witty guide to researching and writing a thesis, published in English for the first time.

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.

Contents
The Definition and Purpose of a Thesis · Choosing the Topic · Conducting Research · The Work Plan and the Index Cards · Writing the Thesis · The Final Draft

Recensione:

Although first published in Italian in 1977, before Eco ( The Name of the Rose) became an internationally renowned novelist, this guide to writing a thesis -- originally aimed at Italian humanities undergraduates brims with practical advice useful for writing research papers... His advocacy of index card files to organize data seems quaintly nostalgic in the age of laptops and online databases, but it only underscores the importance of applying these more sophisticated tools to achieve the thoroughness of the results that he advocates. (Publishers Weekly)

"How To Write a Thesis" is full of friendly, no-bullsh*t,entry-level advice on what to do and how to do it, illustrated with lucid examples and - significantly - explanations of why, by one of the great researchers and writers in the post-war humanities. ...Best of all, the absolutely superb chapter on how to write is worth triple the price of admission on its own." (Times Higher Education)

L'autore:

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.