How to Write a Thesis
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…
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- And Umberto Eco wrote a book on this model before Greene. "How to Write a Thesis"
- Peter Bevelin's Seeking Wisdom.
The other day someone on here recommended The Philosopher's Toolkit, and I ordered a copy based on that recommendation. I've only started to dip into various parts, but I can already confirm that it is a good introductory compendium of the basics of philosophy, logic, and argumentation. In the same vein is Daniel Dennett's Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking.
A personal favorite is Frances Yates's The Art of Memory (think: intersection of rhetoric, mnemonic systems, philosophical systems, and the occult during the Renaissance).
Matthew Butterick's Practical Typography and Typography for Lawyers. Bryan Garner's The Winning Brief.
Umberto Eco's How to Write a Thesis. Adler's How to Read a Book. Pierre Bayard's How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read.
I could go on. Book posts are my favorite posts on HN, but they always lighten my wallet and at home I'm surrounded with ever-growing piles of great material.
- I read a lot. I used to have time to read basically whatever, and would generally just follow the bibliographic of referential trails in other books. Now, my time is much more limited, so whenever I want/need to learn about something new, I'm more disciplined and devise an "essential reading list" as a first step. To do this, I'll perform a basic google search for the topic, check a wikipedia article, or search for the topic on a publisher's website. I'll read the abstract for each book and try to determine which ones are oriented toward beginners. I'll usually select at least three "beginner books" and read them, along with a couple of select "advanced" books that I know I'll have to wait to get to until later.
I try to read for at least 45 minutes each day and I take notes on the books I read. From there I move on to the more advanced stuff I gathered and use my old habit of following bibliographic references for more.
Umberto Eco has a book on how to write a PHD thesis, How to Write a Thesis . I think a lot of the techniques described in that book are valuable for any kind of research, whether your aim is to write a thesis or just to learn something new.
- I posted above before I'd read this -- I'd really stress again that, at least in the humanities, writing is the difference between mere 'accumulation of knowledge', which we all know will eventually be forgotten, and understanding. I would actually recommend Umberto Eco's book How to Write a Thesis as a great foundation for how to structure your cross-disciplinary studies and synthesize, again even if just for yourself. If you do start a blog, however 'cliched', you can also start to seek validation (or, even better, critical commentary!) from individuals in your fields of interest.
It feels very 'old internet' and his particular objects of study may not be of interest to you, but http://www.autodidactproject.org/ is the very interesting record of one man's lifelong studies outside the academy, as well as reflection on that process.
Best of luck! Certainly ignore those who say this is no different than watching TV if you feel a genuine 'conatus', i.e. striving and desire, for these pursuits.
- Apologies, missed this response. Do you have an email address I can reach you at? It depends somewhat if you’re really interested in the “human” or “social” sciences, but I really do recommend that Eco How to Write a Thesis book regardless. It conveys the old secrets of how to enter humanistic scholarship — and was originally written to allow even working class Italians who might only have access to a library for an hour a week to do so.
- If you are driven or held back by what strangers think about your work, or — worse — what you imagine people might think or comment, you aren’t producing honest work. You are performing.
No matter what you do, no matter how relevant or perfect you think it is, someone will find fault. It’s up to you to interpret criticism as constructive or not. You can’t expect other people to know what may offend you or cause you to doubt yourself.
All criticism, and all praise, you get may have value. If someone’s comments make you think about your work then the comments have value. Everything else you can ignore. If you feel defensive or hurt, or flattered, your focus has moved from your work to your ego.
Nabokov, a writer who didn’t give a toss about his critics, wrote something worth keeping in mind:
I don’t think that an artist should bother about his audience. His best audience is the person he sees in his shaving mirror every morning. I think that the audience an artist imagines, when he imagines that kind of a thing, is a room filled with people wearing his own mask.
You asked for books that might help. I’m not sure what your project involves, but I can suggest a few that I have enjoyed.
How to Write a Thesis and Six Walks in the Fictional Woods by Umberto Eco.
Strong Opinions by Vladimir Nabokov.
