How to write a thesis / Umberto Eco ; translated by Caterina Mongiat Farina and Geoff Farina ; foreword by Francesco Erspamer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Eco, Umberto, author.

Contributor:

Mongiat Farina, Caterina, translator.

Farina, Geoff, translator.

ebrary, Inc.

James Hosmer Penniman Book Fund.

Standardized Title:

Come si fa una tesi di laurea. English

Language:

English

Italian

Subjects (All):

Dissertations, Academic.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxvi, 229 pages.)

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts : MIT Press, [2015]

Language Note:

Translated from the Italian.

System Details:

text file

Contents:

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:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Electronic reproduction. Palo Alto, Calif. Available via World Wide Web.

Description based on print version record.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the James Hosmer Penniman Book Fund.

ISBN:

0262328755

9780262328753

Publisher Number:

99962634912

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.