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.
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
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