How to Write a Thesis

by Umberto Eco, Caterina Mongiat Farina, Geoff Farina

Overview

The wise and witty guide to researching and writing a thesis, by the bestselling author of The Name of the Rose—now published in English for the first time.

Learn the art of the thesis from a giant of Italian literature and philosophy—from choosing a topic to organizing a work schedule to writing the final draft.
 
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, Eco published a little book for his students, in which he offered useful advice on all the steps involved in researching and writing a thesis. Since then, it has been translated into 17 languages—and is now for the first time presented 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 in six different parts:
 
• The Definition and Purpose of a Thesis
• Choosing the Topic
• Conducting the Research
• The Work Plan and the Index Cards
• Writing the Thesis
• The Final Draft
 
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.

Irreverent and often hilarious, How to Write a Thesis is unlike any other writing manual and belongs on the bookshelves of students, teachers, writers, and Eco fans everywhere.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262527132
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	03/06/2015
Series:	The MIT Press
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	528,003
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Umberto Eco was 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.

Hometown:

Bologna, Italy

Date of Birth:

January 5, 1932

Date of Death:

February 19, 2016

Place of Birth:

Alessandria, Italy

Education:

Ph.D., University of Turin, 1954

Table of Contents

Foreword Francesco Erspamer ix

Translators' Foreword xv

Introduction to the Original 1977 Edition xix

Introduction to the 1985 Edition xxiii

1 The Definition and Purpose of the Thesis

1.1 What Is a Thesis, and Why Is It Required? 1

1.2 For Whom Is This Book Written? 4

1.3 The Usefulness of a Thesis after Graduation 5

1.4 Four Obvious Rules for Choosing a Thesis Topic 7

2 Choosing the Topic

2.1 Monograph or Survey? 9

2.2 Historical or Theoretical? 13

2.3 Ancient or Contemporary? 16

2.4 How Long Does It Take to Write a Thesis? 17

2.5 Is It Necessary to Know Foreign Languages? 22

2.6 "Scientific" or Political? 26

2.6.1 What Does It Mean to Be Scientific? 26

2.6.2 Writing about Direct Social Experience 32

2.6.3 Treating a "Journalistic" Topic with Scientific Accuracy 35

2.7 How to Avoid Being Exploited by Your Advisor 42

3 Conducting Research

3.1 The Availability of Primary and Secondary Sources 45

3.1.1 What Are the Sources of a Scientific Work? 45

3.1.2 Direct and Indirect Sources 50

3.2 Bibliographical Research 54

3.2.1 How to Use the Library 54

3.2.2 Managing Your Sources with the Bibliographical Index Card File 58

3.2.3 Documentation Guidelines 62

3.2.4 An Experiment in the Library of Alessandria 79

3.2.5 Must You Read Books? If So, What Should You Read First? 103

4 The Work Plan and the Index Cards

4.1 The Table of Contents as a Working Hypothesis 107

4.2 Index Cards and Notes 115

4.2.1 Various Types of Index Cards and Their Purpose 115

4.2.2 Organizing the Primary Sources 123

4.2.3 The Importance of Readings Index Cards 126

4.2.4 Academic Humility 142

5 Writing the Thesis

5.1 The Audience 145

5.2 How to Write 147

5.3 Quotations 156

5.3.1 When and How to Quote: 10 Rules 156

5.3.2 Quotes, Paraphrases, and Plagiarism 164

5.4 Footnotes 167

5.4.1 The Purpose of Footnotes 167

5.4.2 The Notes and Bibliography System 170

5.4.3 The Author-Date System 174

5.5 Instructions, Traps, and Conventions 179

5.6 Academic Pride 183

6 The Final Draft

6.1 Formatting the Thesis 186

6.1.1 Margins and Spaces 186

6.1.2 Underlining and Capitalizing 188

6.1.3 Sections 190

6.1.4 Quotation Marks and Other Signs 191

6.1.5 Transliterations and Diacritics 195

6.1.6 Punctuation, Foreign Accents, and Abbreviations 199

6.1.7 Some Miscellaneous Advice 204

6.2 The Final Bibliography 208

6.3 The Appendices 212

6.4 The Table of Contents 215

7 Conclusions 221

Notes 225

Editorial Reviews

01/12/2015
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. Stating up front that “the topic is secondary to the research method and the actual experience of writing a thesis,” Eco walks the reader through the process of starting and completing a thesis, including selecting a topic, conducting research from primary and secondary sources, compiling a reference bibliography, and drafting and revising the final paper. He doles out his dollops of advice in chapters whose numbered sections and subsections themselves approximate the structure of a thesis, and he often enlivens his potentially dry subject matter with impish humor—for example, Eco describes photocopies that students make but fail to read as “a neocapitalism of information.” 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. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

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-bullshit, 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.

—Robert Eaglestone, Times Higher Education—

How to Write a Thesis remains valuable after all this time largely thanks to the spirit of Eco's advice. It is witty but sober, genial but demanding—and remarkably uncynical about the rewards of the thesis, both for the person writing it and for the enterprise of scholarship itself.... Some of Eco's advice is, if anything, even more valuable now, given the ubiquity and seeming omniscience of our digital tools.... Eco's humor never detracts from his serious intent. And anyway, even the sardonic pointers on cheating are instructive in their way.

—Scott McLemee, Inside Higher Education—

Eco is a first-rate storyteller and unpretentious instructor who thrives on describing the twists and turns of research projects as well as how to avoid accusations of plagiarism.

—Jan Gardner, Boston Globe—

The book's enduring appeal—the reason it might interest someone whose life no longer demands the writing of anything longer than an e-mail—has little to do with the rigors of undergraduate honors requirements. Instead, it's about what, in Eco's rhapsodic and often funny book, the thesis represents: a magical process of self-realization, a kind of careful, curious engagement with the world that need not end in one's early twenties. 'Your thesis,' Eco foretells, 'is like your first love: it will be difficult to forget.' By mastering the demands and protocols of the fusty old thesis, Eco passionately demonstrates, we become equipped for a world outside ourselves—a world of ideas, philosophies, and debates.

—Hua Hsu, The New Yorker—

Well beyond the completion of the thesis, Eco's manual makes for pleasant reading and is deserving of a place on the desks of scholars and professional writers. Even sections such as that recommending the combinatory system of handwritten index cards, while outdated in the digital age, can propose a helpful exercise in critical thinking, and add a certain vintage appeal to the book.

—Times Literary Supplement—

How to Write a Thesis has become a classic.

—LSE Review of Books—

From the Publisher

Well beyond the completion of the thesis, Eco's manual makes for pleasant reading and is deserving of a place on the desks of scholars and professional writers. Even sections such as that recommending the combinatory system of handwritten index cards, while outdated in the digital age, can propose a helpful exercise in critical thinking, and add a certain vintage appeal to the book.

—Times Literary Supplement

Reviews

Well beyond the completion of the thesis, Eco's manual makes for pleasant reading and is deserving of a place on the desks of scholars and professional writers. Even sections such as that recommending the combinatory system of handwritten index cards, while outdated in the digital age, can propose a helpful exercise in critical thinking, and add a certain vintage appeal to the book.

Times Literary Supplement

The book's enduring appeal—the reason it might interest someone whose life no longer demands the writing of anything longer than an e-mail—has little to do with the rigors of undergraduate honors requirements. Instead, it's about what, in Eco's rhapsodic and often funny book, the thesis represents: a magical process of self-realization, a kind of careful, curious engagement with the world that need not end in one's early twenties. 'Your thesis,' Eco foretells, 'is like your first love: it will be difficult to forget.' By mastering the demands and protocols of the fusty old thesis, Eco passionately demonstrates, we become equipped for a world outside ourselves—a world of ideas, philosophies, and debates.

The New Yorker - Hua Hsu

Eco is a first-rate storyteller and unpretentious instructor who thrives on describing the twists and turns of research projects as well as how to avoid accusations of plagiarism.

Boston Globe - Jan Gardner

How to Write a Thesis remains valuable after all this time largely thanks to the spirit of Eco's advice. It is witty but sober, genial but demanding—and remarkably uncynical about the rewards of the thesis, both for the person writing it and for the enterprise of scholarship itself.... Some of Eco's advice is, if anything, even more valuable now, given the ubiquity and seeming omniscience of our digital tools.... Eco's humor never detracts from his serious intent. And anyway, even the sardonic pointers on cheating are instructive in their way.

Inside Higher Education - Scott McLemee

How to Write a Thesis is full of friendly, no-bullshit, 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 - Robert Eaglestone