Month: March 2015

How to Make a Book out of Your Dissertation

A lot of PHD scholars, when they finish their research wish to convert their thesis into a book. However, more than often they are not aware of the publishing process. For the first time publishers, there are a few steps that they need to follow compulsorily in order to smoothly go ahead with the publication … Continue reading “How to Make a Book out of Your Dissertation”

A lot of PHD scholars, when they finish their research wish to convert their thesis into a book. However, more than often they are not aware of the publishing process. For the first time publishers, there are a few steps that they need to follow compulsorily in order to smoothly go ahead with the publication process.

Write the prospectus of the book: it may sound very challenging; however a book prospectus is not that complex a document. There are certain important components of a book prospectus.

• The main argument of the book in a summative format
• The paragraph summary of each chapter
• A time frame within which the manuscript would be completed
• Detail of the target audience in accordance with the content of the book
• The similar genre of literature that is available.

All this information does not need to use a lot of pages. These are short documents where information needs to be put in a concise manner.

Submit the prospectus of the book: It is a good idea to send the prospectus of the book to many publishers, as many as possible. It is often possible to find the precise requirements of the publishers online and usually some of them ask for two sample chapters.

Submission and review of the manuscript/book: After your prospectus gets approved, you have to submit your manuscript in a stipulated time period. After having submitted the manuscript, it usually comes back in a time span of one to twelve months. Sometimes the wait for the review looks very long and may get frustrating.

The contract offer: On the basis of the review, the press decides to take a decision regarding the manuscript. In the best possible scenario, it may offer the contract or it may ask to revise the prospectus again as per the suggestions of the review committee. If the proposal is completely not suitable to the press they may decline the offer altogether. You need to search and approach another publisher in the case. In case the contract is signed, all the negotiations take place at this stage regarding the expenses related to the index, pictures, royalty, date and place of release etc.

Revision and Copy Editing: The manuscript is revised on the basis of the suggestions made by the review committee and finally it goes to the copy editor for proofreading. When the copy editor sends you the changes, you revise it according to the changes.

In the Press and on the shelf: Printing takes a couple of months and finally the book is available for sale.

Some Tips That Would Help You to Sail Through the Tough Times of PhD

 A lot of ideas and suggestions compiled up as a list of tips that would comprehensively help to keep spirits high during a  PhD journey that is tough. Polish your skills:  use this as an opportunity to polish all those skills that this programme is offering you to focus upon Get an opportunity to earn … Continue reading “Some Tips That Would Help You to Sail Through the Tough Times of PhD”

 A lot of ideas and suggestions compiled up as a list of tips that would comprehensively help to keep spirits high during a  PhD journey that is tough.

  1. Polish your skills:  use this as an opportunity to polish all those skills that this programme is offering you to focus upon
  2. Get an opportunity to earn a stipend: look at it as another constructive means to ear yourself a minimum wage alongside getting to add a worthy degree to your kitty
  3. Live the life of a college student: whatever your age be while you are pursuing your PhD, take it as a chance of an extended college life. You can do all that college kids do all the while that you stay on the campus
  4. Become a knowledge sucker: perhaps it is the only phase in life when one lives around people evolved with knowledge. Hone as much as you can and become a sucker for knowledge at this time
  5. Get research papers published: it is must for a PhD scholar, and because it is compulsory so you would do it. Look at it as an opportunity to participate in conferences in the most exotic locales around the world and your name there in the most reputed of journals
  6. Remember that you are paid to read: many a scholars forget that they get paid to read and write. It is an easier source to earn money, than many other around the world. Keep reminding yourself the same
  7. Make Friends and expand your circle:  you will need various doses of inspiration and motivation during the tenure. Make inspiring friends  who would keep your spirits high
  8. Make your resume meaty:  you would find many a options for joining committees and take up leadership initiatives at various places. Without letting it come in the way of your research, do take up the opportunities and give yourself  the exposure to shine and fly higher
  9. Observe your supervisor closely: your supervisor would be an achiever in his own field. Staying in close association with him would help you to understand what he has done differently. Explore a similar  growth path for self
  10. Do not waste precious time:  do utilise the time judiciously

Practice to Proofread Your Own Thesis

Self-proofreading is a very important thing that should be done by any PhD scholar. It is imperative that each paragraph in the dissertation should be complete and correct grammatically. It should have crystal clarity. It is necessary that a dissertation should satisfy the correct rules of formal grammar and that makes it very necessary to … Continue reading “Practice to Proofread Your Own Thesis”

Self-proofreading is a very important thing that should be done by any PhD scholar. It is imperative that each paragraph in the dissertation should be complete and correct grammatically. It should have crystal clarity. It is necessary that a dissertation should satisfy the correct rules of formal grammar and that makes it very necessary to go through the thesis before submitting it for publication.

The next step after finishing thesis

After having finished the PhD: After finishing the PhD, the first thing to do is organise the write up. Your work should reflect the strong side of the work and that is why going through your work several times is very important.

 Way to proofread the thesis: Proofreading the thesis is one thing that has to be done after compiling all the material. The following essentials are to be kept in mind while proofreading the thesis

  1. Read and make yourself familiar with all the information that you have compiled in your thesis
  • Get rid of all the unnecessary words, details, paragraphs
  • Include important information if it has been missed out
  • Sequence out and restructure the paragraphs, sentences and words so that there is connectivity in the flow of the content
  • Check with an eye to observe for coherence and diction
  • Ensure that you have observed all the information correctly

Need and relevance of proofreading

Proofreading enhances the quality of your thesis and adds value to it in a great way. It has a lot of importance as this is the process through which we remove the irrelevant details and incorporate the left out information. It helps in removing missed out spelling errors, punctuations and grammatical flaws. It brings in clarity in the document and self-proofreading instils in the writer the confidence about the content of the thesis. In brief, proofreading should bring into the thesis relevance, precision, simplicity, connectivity and a means to eliminate all those mistakes that may have been made in the process if thesis writing , accidentally.