Revising Your Dissertation

Before submitting your project to the Press, your dissertation must be reenvisioned, restructured, and revised to transform your argument from a field-specific dissertation to a project that appeals to a substantial number of educated readers outside a narrow field of interest. We recommend consulting the following resources for more guidance on revising a dissertation to a book:

If you haven’t done so, please make the following changes:

  • Remove acknowledgment of your dissertation committee. You can still acknowledge committee members as individual scholars rather than as part of your committee.
  • Reduce the review of literature and incorporate these sources as needed to support your argument.
  • Cut the number of quotations, especially long ones. In general, your book needs more of your voice and less of others’ voices, so paraphrase and summarize wherever possible.
  • Reduce notes and only include what readers of your book need to know.
  • Pare down the bibliography. While students need to show their committee the depth and breadth of research, book authors only need to provide readers the most pertinent sources. If you have referred to a source directly, it should be in the bibliography.

For more information on writing a proposal and the publication process, please consult:

University Press of Florida
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