Genre
Some resources that help demystify various genres of academic writing.
Books
The Dissertation-to-Book Workbook (Katelyn E. Knox and Allison Van Deventer)
This book just came out, and it’s so good! A brilliant series of exercises to help you articulate your arguments, organize your book, and more.
On Revision (William Germano)
My favorite Germano book, On Revision offers thoughtful, useful suggestions for approaching thorny big-picture issues during the revision process.
Thinking Like Your Editor: How to Write Great Serious Non-Fiction—and Get it Published! (Susan Rabiner and Alfred Fortunato)
Although Thinking Like Your Editor focuses on writing and publishing trade nonfiction books, key components—such as the chapter on narrative tension and the four questions about audience that the authors present in the first chapter—are highly relevant to scholarly books as well.
Writing and Publishing Your Book: A Guide for Experts in Every Field (Melody Herr)
Herr’s brisk overview of the process of writing and publishing a book—especially her advice on best practices for reaching out to publishers—will be helpful to many first-time academic authors.
The Elements of Academic Style: Writing for the Humanities (Eric Hayot)
Hayot’s engaging, sometimes provocative book explores a wide range of macro- and micro-level stylistic choices in humanities writing. While I don’t agree with all of Hayot’s recommendations, he provides much food for thought, and some of his suggestions are brilliant. Hayot provides thoughtful treatments of matters ranging from “structural subordination” to “showing your iceberg” (your deep expertise) to bringing “ventilation” into your writing. Worth reading and re-reading.
Revising Your Dissertation: Advice from Leading Editors (ed. Beth Luey)
This collection of essays by acquisitions editors includes some truly useful pieces (such as Jenya Weinreb’s “Time to Trim,” which offers strategies for cutting or shortening footnotes and endnotes).
From Dissertation to Book (William Germano)
If you are struggling to revise your manuscript so that it hangs together as a book, you might find Germano’s guide to be helpful—whether or not your project began as a dissertation.
The Thesis and the Book (ed. Eleanor Harman, Ian Montagnes, Siobhan McMenemy, Chris Bucci)
If you were going to read just one of the “dissertation-to-book” guides, I’d probably recommend Germano’s (above). That said, two chapters in this edited volume—Olive Holme’s “Thesis to Book: What to Get Rid of and What to Do with What is Left” and Barbara B. Reitt’s “An Academic Author’s Checklist”—seem especially useful. Both lay out key issues to attend to in order to revise a dissertation into a focused, readable book.
“Turning Your Dissertation into a Book” (webinar by Cathy Hannabach; interdisciplinary focus)
Developmental Editing (Scott Norton)
Norton offers suggestions that might help writers who are struggling to fine-tune a thesis or find the arguments buried in their prose. (However, his book—written with editors in mind, and structured around fictional case studies—isn’t always the most accessible.)
Getting it Published: A Guide for Scholars and Anyone Else Serious About Serious Books (William Germano) and Handbook for Academic Authors (Beth Luey)
Both of these books focus on the nuts-and-bolts of publishing (with chapters that address matters such as contracts, manuscript preparation. and book pricing).
Book Proposals
The Book Proposal Book (Laura Portwood-Stacer)
I recommend Laura Portwood-Stacer’s smart, approachable guide to the scholarly book proposal to all of my clients working on proposals.
Book Proposal Accelerator (online course by Laura Portwood-Stacer)
Laura Portwood-Stacer has created a thorough and insightful curriculum on book proposals that addresses topics ranging from identifying audiences and target presses to writing a persuasive project description and effective chapter summaries. (Back in January 2020, I took Laura’s course in order to be able to better help my editing clients with their proposals and learned a lot.)
“Tips for Book Proposals” (Susan Ferber)
Chapter 3 of Writing and Publishing Your Book: A Guide for Experts in Every Field (Melody Herr)
Herr’s chapter on book proposals provides a succinct guide to drafting materials—such as a cover letter, annotated table of contents, and writing samples—that will hold the attention of an acquiring editor and the press’s marketing team.
“Writing an Academic Book Proposal” (webinar by Cathy Hannabach; interdisciplinary focus)
Journal Articles
Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks: A Guide to Academic Publishing Success (Wendy Laura Belcher)
Belcher’s smart, encouraging book is designed to help writers in the humanities and social sciences revise existing work (such as conference papers or dissertation chapters) into publishable journal articles. I highly recommend this book to scholars working on articles—and I think many of the chapters (e.g., the chapters on argument and on sentence-level editing) could be helpful to those working on book manuscripts as well.
Writing Science: How to Write Papers That Get Cited and Proposals That Get Funded (Joshua Schimel)
Schimel, an environmental scientist, shows how principles of story structure can help scientists energize their writing and effectively communicate their ideas.
“How to craft an organizational structure for your research article” (Letitia Henville)
“How to publish compelling, collaboratively written journal articles” (Letitia Henville)
“Writing the Introduction to a Journal Article” and “Concluding the Journal Article” (Pat Thompson)
Dissertations
Some of the resources below are really about the process of writing a dissertation, but since they’re specific to this genre, I’ve decided to include them on this page. Short descriptions of the books will be coming soon.
The ABD Survival Guide (newsletter and website)
Warm, actionable advice by coach Gayle Scroggs and other contributors.
“Surviving the Dissertation” and “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Dissertation” (Stephanie Hedge)
Demystifying Dissertation Writing: A Streamlined Process from Choice of Topic to Final Text (Peg Boyle Single)
Single’s book focuses on process of writing a dissertation. Her chapters on note taking, citable notes, focus statements, and writer’s block seem especially helpful.
Destination Dissertation: A Traveler's Guide to a Done Dissertation (Sonja Foss and William Waters)
Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day (Joan Bolker)
Finish Your Dissertation Once and for All!: How to Overcome Psychological Barriers, Get Results, and Move on With Your Life (Alison B. Miller)
The Craft of Research (Wayne Booth, Gregory Colomb, Joseph Williams)
Job Application Materials
“Job Documents That Work,” Part 4 of The Professor Is In (Karen Kelsky)
“Your reader is a little bit drunk” (Letitia Henville)
An article on choosing legible fonts and writing with sleep-deprived readers in mind.
“How to write a statement of teaching philosophy that shines” (Letitia Henville)
“CVs versus Resumes” (The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Writing Center)